Rachel Stevens announces she has separated from husband after more than a decade

Rachel Stevens has split from her husband Alex Bourne after close to 13 years of marriage, stating that she and Bourne "will remain partners in parenthood".

S Club 7 star Stevens and her childhood sweetheart Bourne married in 2009 and have two daughters together, born in 2010 and 2014.

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The 44-year-old singer wrote to her 280,000 followers via Instagram Stories that she and Bourne have come to a decision to part ways.

"I just wanted to share with you all that, after time and consideration, the difficult decision has been made for Alex and I to separate," she wrote.

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Stevens added: "While we are no longer partners in marriage, we will remain partners in parenthood to our beautiful girls and continue with love and respect for each other.

"I feel so incredibly grateful for the life we built together and will now continue to be focused on moving forward united as a family."

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Earlier this year, Stevens told podcast The Moments That Made Me about how she and Bourne first met at a youth club at the age of 12, dating for around a month before going their separate ways.

The couple met again years later and eventually chose to give their relationship another go.

"His relationship with his girlfriend ended and then I went off to LA and he was an actor at the time so he came out to LA, too. Then we rekindled our relationship again," said Stevens.

She added: "So, it was quite a random meeting and then just sort of randomly bumping into each other. It was like we were being pulled back to each other."

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Stevens rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of S Club 7 and embarked on a solo music career after the group split in 2003, scoring number two hits with Sweet Dreams My LA Ex and Some Girls.

She rejoined the other original members of the group in 2015 for a reunion arena tour, playing a dozen live shows across the UK.

Watch: S Club 7 reveal comeback news