Relationships

How things are one year on from the Yellow and Purple Wiggles’ marriage split

Yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins says she can't imagine life without her former husband, Lachlan Gillespie, in it.

One year on from her devastating split with Purple Wiggle, Lachlan Gillespie, Yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins say the pair remain close friends.

In an interview with Bounty Emma reveals, “We are the best of friends. It’s not a normal situation where we break up and then don’t see each other. We actually work together every single day so it’s nice to work with your best friend. I think that’s what we realised, that we were best friends all along.”

Emma and Lachy’s love story became one of Australia’s most treasured fairy tales after the children’s entertainers fell in love working together in the popular super-group, The Wiggles.

They dated for two years then in April 2016 tied the knot in a moving ceremony in New South Wales.

But the couple split after just two years of marriage, and unlike most couples who separate, they’ve had to continue to work and tour together under the glare of the children’s entertainment spotlight.

But Emma insists that their continued involvement has not been difficult to navigate.

“My life wouldn’t be my life without him as part of it. I honestly am so grateful. We’ve had our ups and downs but we’ve come out of it on the back end really appreciating each other, like more than we did before. We’ve grown up, and now it’s just a different time.”

She adds, “We had this crazy journey together which we didn’t experience with anyone else but each other – being Wiggly dancers and then we became Wiggles and we were like, ‘oh my god this is so exciting and then we got married and we’re separated but we’re still there’.”

In a 2018 interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly, Emma revealed that Lachy had felt like “family” to her long before they got married:

“Lachy and I had been touring together for seven years before we 
got married. We knew so much about each other – what we’re like when we are tired and hungry. What we like to eat. We were already a family.”

The happy couple a year before they married, in 2015.

Lachy was said to have been heartbroken when Emma had first asked him for a trial separation just over a year into their marriage. A source told Sunday Confidential at the time: “He was completely besotted by Emma and worshipped her…”

However, friends say the relationship might have been doomed from the start.

While for Emma it had been love at first sight Lachlan had taken longer to fall for her.

Perhaps tellingly, Emma once said in an interview that the couple had “dwindled” into becoming engaged.

Once the couple was married they were unable to take a honeymoon because of the Wiggles’ gruelling performance schedule.

And as their demanding schedule failed to let up, behind the scenes Emma was privately battling daily pain with the condition, endometriosis. She reportedly told friends that she was finding it hard to relate to Lachy as a husband and had started to see him as “more like a brother”.

One friend said, “I think Em wanted this marriage for such a long time that it was always going to be hard to live up to the dream. Ultimately, the fairytale just didn’t match up with the reality.”

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