Ashley Cain and Safiyya with their daughter Azaylia Diamond
(Picture: PA)Ashley Cain and Safiyaa have revealed they have split up as they approach the anniversary of their baby daughter’s death from cancer.
Their daughter Azaylia Diamond Cain was eight months old when she died on April 25 last year after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
Now the former footballer and his former girlfriend released a joint statement on Instagram just weeks away from the anniversary of their little girl’s death.
It said: “After a devastating and heartbreaking year, Safiyya and I decided to separate a few months ago.
“This was an incredibly tough decision which we needed to keep to ourselves for some time to give us the opportunity to figure out our own journey privately.
“The past few months have demonstrated that we remain the closest of friends, spending time together everyday and that we will love, care and support each other forever.
“We are bonded by our powerful journey together, by the eternal love we have for our daughter and our passionate commitment to her foundation.”
At Azaylia’s funeral, Mr Cain told mourners his daughter was “beautiful, strong, courageous and so, so inspirational”.
In the speech, Mr Cain said: “I always thought I was a bit of a celebrity, then Azaylia came along, completely blew me out of the water.
“I think that when you have a child, as a parent, you can be slightly biased, but I think it is safe to say, on behalf of myself, my partner, to my friends and family and the whole world who have followed our story, that my daughter, Azaylia Diamond Cain was special.
“Beautiful, strong, courageous and so, so inspirational. I don’t think that a single person in this room can say they are too wise, too educated or experienced to have learned something from my lion.
“From the second she came into my life everything changed. She changed my life, she saved my life and she made my life.”
Reflecting on the moment she was diagnosed with cancer, Mr Cain said: “I don’t understand after hearing that news, after getting the most devastating news, at such a difficult time, we still had the best days of our life.”
He said he missed kissing her lips, smelling her head, I miss blowing raspberries on her belly and putting her feet on his face.
Azaylia was diagnosed with aggressive leukaemia when she was eight weeks old.
A fundraiser to try to help save her life had reached more than £1.5 million by the time she died.
