Mary Portas splits from wife after four years
MARY Portas has split up with her wife four and a half years after they wed.
TV presenter and retail expert Miss Portas, 58, and fashion writer Melanie Rickey, 45, were among the first gay couples to marry.
They have already sold their £5million North London mansion and said they have been ‘consciously managing’ their split for the past year and will continue to ‘co-parent’ their son Horatio. They said was no one else was involved. A friend of the couple told the Sun: ‘In the end they decided they were better off as wonderful friends’.
Miss Portas, who hosted BBC TV’s Mary Queen of Shops, and Miss Rickey started dating in 2003 and had a civil ceremony in 2010. They were among the first same-sex couples to convert that partnership into marriage in December 2014.
Miss Rickey gave birth to Horatio in 2012, who was conceived through IVF treatment. Miss Portas also has two grown-up children with her exhusband Graham Portas.