Rachel Stevens is "not ready" to start dating again after a "painful" split.
Rachel Stevens opens up about single life following painful split
The S Club 7 star, 44, called it quits with Alex Bourne last summer after 12 years of marriage,but and because her own parents went through a divorce when she was a teenager, ended up "worried" about their daughters Amelie, 12, and Minnie, eight, but insisted although the separation was "amicable", she does not want to get back onto the dating scene any time soon.
She told The Sun newspaper's Fabulous Magazine: "It’s very hard to articulate the feelings, because there are so many. It’s been really painful, really sad. It’s been the biggest decision to make in our lives, obviously, with our kids. I worried about the girls having the experience I had. We’ve had some amazing advice on how to speak to them. They know how much we love them and we are not going anywhere. Our split is very amicable and that’s really helping. It’s only the last two weeks that we’ve not been living together.
"That was definitely difficult. We’re doing it with love and respect, but it’s a process. “It’s taken a lot of navigating. We are going to mess up and make mistakes. But we are acknowledging that to them, and I feel so lucky.
"There’s been a few [offers to take her out]/ But no, I’m not ready to start dating. I’ve got enough going on for now. But I love love. I’m the soppiest person. We should be happy to be in love and deserve all the great things in life."
The 'Sweet Dreams My LA Ex" hitmaker went on to add that when her own parents split, she wasn't aware of what was going on and that "honesty" is the key to managing the situation as a parent out of "respect."
She added: "When my parents divorced, I didn’t know what was going on. As parents, you will do anything to protect your children, but you are actually not protecting them by keeping them in the dark. You need to be honest with them.
"We need to respect that they are emotionally smart. Otherwise, they make things up in their own mind and that’s more damaging. It’s a balance and you have to park your stuff and focus on them.
"It’s been very planned how we’ve told them that we were separating. But you can’t always get everything right. It’s just not possible."
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