Christine McGuinness has said headlines about her marriage to husband Paddy served as a wake-up call for the couple.
The mum-of-three told OK! magazine that she and Paddy have “been through a lot” in private and speculation about the state of their marriage made them realise changes needed to be made.
Their relationship made headlines earlier this year, with rumours all wasn’t well between them.
Christine has now said: “As a family we’ve had an awful lot to deal with, but you can only do your best in a relationship and like anything else it takes working at and we’re working things through.”
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The 30-year-old said she and Paddy prefer to keep their marriage away from the spotlight, but she’s been in the public eye for long enough to let rumours and gossip wash over her.
“We’ve been through a lot as a couple in private, but I still love Paddy,” she said.
“The recent headlines made us open our eyes. It made us realise we have to make some changes. We were like: ‘We can do better than this, we can make each other a lot happier.'”
Christine and Paddy are parents to four-year-old twins, Penelope and Leo, and one-year-old daughter, Felicity.
The former model, who will appear in the new series of The Real Housewives of Cheshire, previously appeared on ITV’s Loose Women to talk about her difficult year.
She gave her insight during a panel discussion on how having children can affect a relationship, and how she chooses to do most of the childcare.
Penelope and Leo are autistic, while Felicity is showing signs of autism.
Christine said: “I do most of the childcare. I chose to do it and I’ve got absolutely no regrets although it’s been really difficult recently.
“But I try to take the positive from everything and it has made me realise that, actually, I want to spend more time with him, and get that back, and try and do more things together.”
Christine, who has been with Paddy for 11 years, said: “I just wanted to be a full-time stay-at-home mum, that’s what I wanted to do, so when the twins were four-days-old, I waved my husband off to work, ‘go on, bye love it’s fine, I’ve got this all under control’.
“And he fully focused on work, which is again, what we both wanted at the time. He provided in that way and I stayed at home looking after the children.
“Only recently I’ve started thinking, ‘Do you know, I wish he would stay at home a little bit more’, or I should go with him.
“It’s taken this time to realise and for us to be able to leave the children, it’s not so easy for us to do that, but we’re happier than ever right now.
“It’s great that we’re putting the effort in, it’s lovely, it’s nice. Working at it is quite good, it’s actually exciting, you know?”
Christine continued: “There’s been so many times where he’s left to go to work and I’ve waved him off and said ‘Yeah this is fine, go and enjoy your work’ and then I’ve sat and cried, thinking ‘I really wished you would have stayed.’ That’s a lack of communication.”
The star said she doesn’t regret placing all her attention on the children, but added: “I just hope that my husband didn’t feel too pushed out, because he needs attention, too. I need attention, too.”
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