It was tough to split from my ex but at last I do not resent him
yone ever really knows hat they want. They ight know for a split cond, and go, I’m st gonna do it – and en you live with the nsequences.
“It would have been st as difficult to stay as was to leave.
“I would have written st as emotional an bum if I had stayed th him, that was all out the suffering of being in a longrm relationship.”
Her children now spend two nights a eek at their dad’s house. “So I get two
very set days off and I get a break – quite a lot of married women don’t.
“If they want to go out, they have to say, ‘Is it OK if I do this?’ sheepishly. Which I know, because I’ve been in that situation as well… ‘Sorry, if you don’t mind, I’m going to have a night to myself ’ and usually it’s once in a blue moon.”
Their new co-parenting arrangement feels “very modern – Gwyneth Paltrow-y”, says the singer.
And with “no one to resent”, the pair are on good terms.
“I think with the distance, my kids’ dad really appreciates me in ways that maybe he didn’t say before.”
She says: “We take time out to say ‘you’re brilliant’ to each other, which we didn’t do before. I’ll say, ‘I’m so lucky that my kids are your kids’.”
Mentally, Paloma, whose UK tour starts in April, is in a better place now after “the most dramatic period” of her life. “When I first ended it, I felt I had to sort of keep up this idea that I could power through and continue to kind of do everything, and I think that I burned out, I do think that I had a kind of breakdown when I broke up with my kids’ dad.
“Now I feel better in the sense that [I’m] a bit more kind to myself in knowing what I have capacity for.
“My priorities are clearer and less blurry to me than they’ve been for several years.”
And although she’s “en route” to a period of happiness, she cannot quite
yet see the decision to split as choosing a happier path for herself. “I think to feel that way, I’d need to have forgiven myself, and I’m not there yet.” Forgiven herself for what exactly? “For him not being enough for me.”
The Glorification Of Sadness is on sale now. Faith has teamed up with Amazon to release Enjoy Yourself (The Red Nose Day Edition) in support of Comic Relief for this year’s Red Nose Campaign. Paloma plays Iveagh Gardens in Dublin on Sunday July 21.