Fair City's Sorcha Furlong revealed she has split from her soap writer husband Ken Harmon.
Opening up about the marriage breakdown for the first time, the actress said they decided to keep their news private at first as they work together on the RTE show.
The actress, best known as Carrigstown’s Orla Molloy, said: "It was sad. It was really sad.”
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“In fairness to us, we tried to make it work but it wasn’t working.”
Sorcha and Ken wed in August 2019, at The Millhouse in Slane, Co. Meath.
Speaking to RSVP Magazine, the mum-of-one said they handled their split ‘pragmatically’ out of respect for eachother and those around them.
“We had both been there before and we started off as friends before things turned romantic, so we knew that the other person wasn’t happy," she explained.
“Afterwards, you realise you are on your own but I would rather leave an unhappy relationship than stay in one."
She went on: "I didn’t tell anybody for a long time and we both work on Fair City [he is a writer]. We had to deal with it ourselves first and we had to respect our kids."
The soap and panto star said she is now focused on creating her own happiness as she looks to the future with positivity.
She said: "I don’t know if it is because I am getting older – you think your problems are bad and then you meet someone else.
"People die and children get sick. If you sat in a circle and you put your car keys into a bowl and your car keys were your problems, you would take your own car key back out.
"Of course it was sad, but, as I get older, I realise that I just want to be happy. If you aren’t happy, you have to get happy. My marriage didn’t work out and it is very sad, but it is not the end of the world."
And as she gets set to take to the stage, in her own stage show, Forever Hits, which plays in the Liberty Hall, Dublin on September 24, she said she is trying to let go of the idea that she can control her life's plan.
She said: “I am a planner and I like to know where my life is going. Being married in my 20s, having two or three kids and doing a job I love never happened for me.
"When I was in my late teens, I thought that was what my life would be.
"My parents had me quite young and I thought I would definitely have kids in my early 20s. Life doesn’t always pan out the way you might want it to, but you will always get to where you want to go, even if you have to take a different road.
"Vincent Lawlor, who manages me, is a very relaxed person and he always sees life as glass half full. I am always glass half empty, but he is starting to rub off on me.
"I find myself saying, 'I can’t worry about something I can’t control' and I am much more grounded. I don’t know if that is age, but I am finally doing stuff for me.”
Sorcha Furlong’s Forever Hits show plays Liberty Hall, Dublin on September 24. Tickets available from ticketmaster.ie
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