Tess Daly spoke about the uncertainty of her future months before she and husband Vernon Kay announced their split.
On Friday (8 May), the TV power couple posted messages to their respective Instagram accounts confirming that they had separated after 23 years together. “This has not been an easy choice, but it comes from a place of mutual understanding and a shared desire for what is best for both of us,” Daly, 57, and Kay, 52, wrote. “We remain great friends and most importantly, fully committed to our roles as loving and supportive parents, which will always be our priority.”
For Daly, the split comes just six months after she announced a massive change in her professional life, too, having departed from Strictly Come Dancing, which she has presented since 2004. Her co-host Claudia Winkleman also announced her exit from the show at the same time, with speculation rife on who will replace them.
Daly spoke about the big changes in her life in an October 2025 podcast appearance, which also saw the BBC star reflect on empty nest syndrome – with her and Kay’s two daughters, age 17 and 21, both about to move out of the family home. Their eldest daughter Phoebe is pursuing modelling, while youngest daughter Amber is studying at university.
“It’s going to be really weird,” she told Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum Podcast. “I’m going to have way too much time on my hands. If you remove [my children] from the picture, it looks like a very different picture, and I can’t quite imagine it yet.”
She added that the last 20 years of her life had been defined by her children’s needs, and that she is approaching the future with a mix of anxiety and excitement.
“It could be gorgeous to just have the chance to do those things I’ve never had a chance to do,” she said. “As a mum, I’ve never been away on breaks with my girlfriends – not once in 20 years of being a mum, because [my daughters have] needed me more.”
Kay also recently spoke about the shifting demands in the family home, saying in an interview that “our relationship with [our daughters] is changing,” adding: “We talk about encouraging them to leave the nest and be independent but we don’t really want them to.”
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Daly and Kay have yet to post anything on their respective social media pages since Friday evening’s announcement about their separation, but both of them have disabled comments on their recent posts.
Kay and Daly married in 2003, after meeting in 2001 while both were in the early days of their respective TV presenting careers. Their marriage infamously survived a sexting scandal in 2010, when Kay admitted to sending explicit sexual messages to five women. He said at the time that he had “let down” his family, adding: “Tess is extremely upset about this and we’re working through it.”
