Countryfile presenter announced on Monday night that she had , revealing that he had ‘left the family home’.
Taking to Instagram, the TV star shared the heartbreaking news, which came after eight years of marriage and just four months after they .
In her short statement, Helen told her followers: ‘Very sad to say that Richie and I are no longer a couple. He has left the family home. We will be doing our best to co parent our small children,’ alongside two heartbroken emoji.
Her Leeds Rhinos player partner has not spoken out about the separation.
While posting plenty of photos with her youngsters recently, Helen last shared an Instagram post with Richie on February 13, with the married couple posing for a selfie and looking happy in the final photo of them together.
In honour of Valentine’s Day the following day, she wrote: ‘That time I bumped Into you in the kitchen for ten minutes. ❤️ ? #familyoffive #thejuggleisreal #weekends #thesearethedays #thesearethedays #grateful #valentines #mylove.’
It also seems as if the presenter may have enjoyed an Easter solo break as she shared pictures of herself enjoying pool time with her children at the same time that Richie was training with his rugby team.
Helen and Richie share sons Ernie, six, and Louis, five, alongside new daughter Elsie Kate.
‘In reality in a pool. On telly in a lambing shed,’ she wrote alongside a picture of herself in a black bikini, standing by the pool with a dolphin inflatable, as she reminded her followers about a scheduled TV appearance.
She also posted a photo of herself a few days earlier playing with son Louis in the pool, joking: ‘Vacay vibes …. 3 month old napping. 6 year old footballing. 5 year old needing mum. It’s a holiday ???☀️.’
The same week, after Helen’s first pool picture, Richie shared a snap of himself training hard on the pitch in Leeds.
‘Light at the end of the tunnel,’ he captioned it.
Prior to their last photo together in February, Helen had shared a group selfie at the end of January, commemorating Elsie’s first match watching her dad.
‘Four out of five ain’t bad. Babies first game. (She slept through it) Then went down a rabbit hole looking at pics of Ernie watching dad at Catalan and Warrington and Louis at Headingly. And I wonder why they tackle each other. Poor kids,’ she captioned it.
Richie, 31, and Helen, 38, dated for two years before the rugby ace proposed in March 2012.
They tied the knot in December 2013, with Helen marking their anniversary at the end of last year.
Sharing a photo montage of wedding pictures and snapshots of adventures and events with their expanding family, she wrote: ‘Happy Anniversary Mr M. For year nine of our marriage I promise to learn to put a duvet cover on if you stop knocking holes in my kitchen walls. Just a snap shot of life.
‘No one needs to see me nagging you to take the bin out,’ she added.
The parents welcomed their first daughter together at the end of December, following Ernie’s arrival in 2015 and Louis’ birth in 2017.
After Elsie’s arrival, the couple gave an interview where Helen revealed that Richie had been ‘on tenterhooks’ for about a month prior to her birth.
‘All the way through November, he was convinced I’d have her early. Every time I called him, he would say: “Are you in labour?”‘ she told .
The star also shared that they had not been fussed either way over having a girl or a boy, saying that they ‘just wanted more children and we wanted the surprise’.
Of Richie becoming a father to a little girl, she added: ‘He is buzzing. All his mates have said to him how daughters are always daddy’s little girls.’
Richie appeared in family snaps of Helen’s celebrating Hallowe’en and Christmas, with her sharing a rare solo picture of the couple scrubbed up for a black tie event, plus dog, in October.
‘Last time he wore this suit (8 years ago) we got wed. Safe to say I could not get in the wedding dress right now. (6 months ?)’
In August, she shared a photo of a polaroid snap of her sitting on Richie’s lap, writing: ‘It’s been a while ?? #welostdancing #butwebroughtitback.’
Helen’s post on their seventh wedding anniversary mused on how life was ‘never dull’.
‘Just the way we like it,’ she commented, adding: ‘Thank you team mate for always humouring me and knowing what I need before I need it. What does 7 years look like ….. he did a day of building flat pack – I hung out in a tree with the kids…… ???’
In 2015, the family relocated to France after Richie signed a deal with Catalans Dragons club before relocating to Leeds, where they currently live, after he moved to the Yorkshire-based Rhinos.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk , the former Blue Peter star said: ‘We’re both really close to our families so we kind of look forward to our parents seeing the kids whenever they want.
‘We’ve had a great time in the south of France. We’re really lucky that we get lots of time on the beach, but it’ll be nice to be back with our family and friends – I’ve got a nephew now so it’ll be nice to see him a bit more.’
