They said they were separating \u201camicably\u201d and \u201cremain great friends and, most importantly, fully committed to our roles as loving and supportive parents\u201d.<\/p>\n
A member of Daly and Kay’s friendship circles told the Mail on Sunday that they\u2019d happily decided to call an end to their marriage was “c**p”.<\/p>\n
The newspaper reported that Daly is actually “seething” and her friends are said to be furious at Kay because, at the heart of his estranged wife\u2019s anger, is Rhian Sugden, the former Page 3 model whom Vernon was revealed to have been “sexting” in 2010.<\/p>\n
Friends say “the ghost of Rhian” has hung over their marriage ever since, even there is no suggestion anything untoward happened between the pair.<\/p>\n
![\"Tess](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/39e0288f9e0e5cd6a7bc1b01642ff457.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Tess Daly and Vernon Kay leaving St Mary\u2019s Church in Horwich, Bolton, on their wedding day (PA) (PA Archive)<\/p>\n
“Tess isn\u2019t as chilled about the split as is being put out there”, says a source familiar with the couple told the Mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n “She has gone along with the announcement and has publicly remained silent but in fact she isn\u2019t very happy at all with Vernon,” they claimed.<\/p>\n “Rhian, through no fault of her own, has been a constant in their marriage and recently, friends of Tess have been talking about how her ghost has returned. Tess tried so hard to get over it at the time. It took everything out of her to move on and forget about Rhian.”<\/p>\n In 2010 Kay admitted he sent explicit texts to around five women<\/a>, going on to apologise to hundreds of thousands of listeners on the Radio 1 show he hosted at the time.<\/p>\n He interrupted the programme to tell his two million listeners he had been \u201cfoolish and stupid\u201d.<\/p>\n A month later, Daly said their partnership was \u201cworth fighting for\u201d because they had had \u201c10 great years together\u201d and shared \u201ctwo beautiful kids\u201d.<\/p>\n Rhian Sugden (Nat Jag\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Meanwhile friends of Kaye have reportedly claimed Daly has “changed” and has “ideas of grandeur” that go beyond him and their friendship group.<\/p>\n “For a long time her friends have said that Vernon\u2019s laddish ways have been a hindrance to where she wants to be when it comes to socializing,” one friend is said to have told the Mail.<\/p>\n The couple, who married in September 2003 and share two daughters, said when they split there are no other parties involved in the decision.<\/p>\n In a joint statement shared on Instagram, they said: \u201cAfter much consideration, and with a deep sense of care and respect for one another, we have made the decision to separate amicably.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has not been an easy choice, but it comes from a place of mutual understanding and a shared desire for what is best for both of us.<\/p>\n \u201cWe remain great friends and more importantly, fully committed to our roles as loving and supportive parents, which will always be our priority.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no other parties involved in this decision. We kindly ask for privacy during this time as we navigate this transition together.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not be making any further public comments. Tess and Vernon.\u201d<\/p>\n Kay<\/a> last week said he and Daly wanted to thank BBC Radio 2 listeners for their support.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friends of Tess Daly and Vernon Kaye have reportedly challenged the A-list couple’s assertion their split is “amicable”.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":967525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,270074,270073,270075,75206,16,15,270072],"class_list":["post-967524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-great-friends","tag-rhian-sugden","tag-supportive-parents","tag-tess-daly","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-vernon-kaye"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116592457145665440","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/967525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Rhian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/f09fe4aa24cf387000fed9c2c24f6bc9.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n