Strictly star Helen Skelton said she and rugby league player Richie Myler were steering clear of each other the year before they split.
BBC presenter Helen also told how she felt at times as she tried to balance her job with keeping the house in order.
She wed Leeds Rhinos star Richie, 32, in 2013 and they separated this April, four months after she gave birth to their third child.
Asked last year if the couple went on dates, Helen, 39, said: "No... We're not in the house together – we are staying out of each other's way.
"We say this is the dream as we have breakfast, lunch and dinner together but then look after the kids in shifts.
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"You appreciate the other in this situation. I don't think he'll ever say again, 'What do you do with the kids all day?'. Sometimes I would get in from work and he'd be that husband that would look at the kitchen and say, 'How is this still a mess when she’s been off all day?'.
"Now he's done it he's like, 'How does she stay sane?'."
Helen – whose other children with Richie are five and seven – added the kids would be up late, preventing the couple having quality time together.
She said: "If we sit on the couch before 10pm we're happy. My kids... are terrible sleepers."
The couple had been renovating a house near the family home in Yorkshire. They took it in turns to work on it, meaning even more time apart.
Describing the family dog, Helen said: "He is my sanity. I take [him] for a run and feel much better."
Richie, playing for Ireland in the World Cup, is now in a relationship with Stephanie Thirkill, 32, whose dad is Rhinos president Andrew Thirkill.
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