We’re still reeling from the shock announcement last night that one our favourite Irish couples, Brogue, have called time on their near-three year marriage.
Ex-Westlife star Brian McFadden and model/DJ Vogue Williams released separate, but similar, statements on their Twitter accounts, revealing they have decided to go their separate ways. The news came after the couple bought a new home in Dublin just weeks ago.
The pair both insist that the split is amicable, and they will remain good friends. But where did it go so wrong? We look back on what seemed to be a fun-loving and happy relationship…
Brian and Vogue first met back in 2011 in Krystle Nightclub on Harcourt Street. The former Fade Street star admitted that it was his cheeky sense of humour that caught her eye.
“I was walking to the bathroom and he did the Madonna vogue sign at me with his hand and said nothing,” she said. “I think people have done that to me a million times but it seemed to work for him.”
Brian later spoke of their instant connection on the night they met, and that they talked to each other for eight hours straight.
One month later the model flew to Australia on a holiday and said she was visiting her brother Frederick – but she was actually visiting Brian! Vogue later decided she would stay in Oz with the former popstar.
She said later: “I had just come out of a long-term relationship as well. So they all thought that maybe I was losing the plot a bit … not on the rebound but just because I had changed so much — I just dropped Ireland and decided I wanted to stay there with him.”
After eight months together, the smitten pair got engaged in November 2011, on a hill in Perth at a Dave Stewart concert. They later married in Florence on 2nd September 2012 in a stunning castle, and the lavish wedding was captured on the front cover of Hello! in the UK and OK! in Australia.
Speaking to Hello! at the time, Vogue chatted about the prospect of having kids with Brian, who already has two daughters from his former marriage to Atomic Kitten star Kerry Katona, who Vogue has a close relationship with.
“I think 30 would be a good age — I still have lots of things I want to achieve,” the now-29 year-old said.
In 2013 the pair moved to London together and added a new addition to their home – an adorable Beagle named Winston. The pair often gushed about one another in the media, painting a very loving relationship.
“I love Brian more and more every day. We have a really great relationship and he is always there for me through good and bad,” Vogue said. “He is my best friend and the best husband I could ever have asked for.”
While the singer told The Irish Independent: “I’m one lucky boy. Vogue is the sweetest, kindest, most beautiful woman I have ever met. Not only is she a great wife but she is my best friend, too. If she starts playing golf we will then literally do everything together!”
Last year, they had a fun-filled visit to Disneyland with Brian’s daughters Lily and Molly, and Vogue later told Life magazine: “On paper, I’m their stepmom but in reality, they’re just like little pals.” Brian and Vogue later jetted off to Paris to treat her for her birthday.
Earlier this year, rumours of trouble in paradise surfaced when Vogue blocked her husband on Twitter, but the pair later insisted they were just messing around and did this on a “daily basis” after any lover’s tiffs.
Vogue told TV Now magazine that the pair had “brother and sister fights“: “We don’t have massive fights, we just have a little niggle with each other, and will maybe not speak to each other for a couple of hours. Then the fight is over.”
Just last month, we reported that the pair had bought a house in Dublin, with the DJ commenting that they were “so excited” to pick up the keys to their new abode. Just weeks ago Brian described Vogue as his “soulmate”.
And although many people didn’t see their split coming, industry insiders say whispers of the couple being on the rocks had been circulating for months.
