When it emerged this week that and had ended their nine-year marriage for good, it was framed as the final chapter in a turbulent relationship.
But the Daily Mail can now reveal that the ending in fact came months ago – not with a dramatic fallout, but with a quiet admission from Dan that, after years of trying to repair the damage caused by his past, he simply ‘couldn’t do it anymore’.`
Former star Dan had already moved out of the family home in November after a prolonged period in which, I’m told, star Jac ‘had all the power and control’ but Dan ‘couldn’t do anything right, despite doing most of the childcare, and always telling her where he was’.
‘The truth is Dan couldn’t carry on anymore,’ one source tells me. ‘Jac would have happily kept up the pretence to the outside world that they were still this happy family but he’d had enough.’
And if there had once been the expectation that, as before, the distance might be temporary, that assumption, I’m told, did not hold this time.
‘Dan moving out of the family home back in November showed his wife that he was serious about the break-up,’ the source adds. ‘She always thought he’d be back but he’s shown her that they are better off with their current arrangement.’
At the heart of the breakdown, those close to the couple say, was a dynamic that had been in place for years – one shaped by Dan’s past infidelities, but defined by Jac’s inability to move beyond them.
‘In those few years after he cheated, everything was on her terms,’ a source says. ‘She would want to know where he was and who he was with but he understood he had to comply if he wanted the marriage to work.’
Dan Osborne and Jacqueline Jossa at the National Television Awards in 2020. The pair have split after nine years of marriage
It was, I’m told, a compromise Dan, 34, accepted as the price of rebuilding trust. But as time passed, Jac reportedly failed to soften in her views.
‘She had all the power and control, but five years on she was still the same even though he had done nothing to show her otherwise,’ a source says. ‘He couldn’t do anything right, despite doing most of the childcare, and always telling her where he was. The trust had gone and there was no moving on from it no matter how hard he tried.’
‘Everyone is blaming him, but these last five years he really has done everything he can to be the best husband and dad,’ the source adds. ‘The past is the past but sadly she never really moved on from what he did to her all those years ago.’
Indeed, the couple have faced their difficulties over the years, with their marriage plagued by cheating allegations against Dan.
He was accused of after they were pictured cosying up together on a yacht in Marbella.
The former ITVBe star was also accused of .
Six months later, he was
In 2019, during Jac’s appearance on I Get Me Out of Here!, fellow campmate Myles Stephenson, 34, who had previously dated Gabby, told the EastEnders star he believed Dan had cheated with the Scouse Islander.
The couple are parents to young daughters Ella, 11, and Mia, seven, while Dan is father to son Teddy, 12
A year later, Dan finally confessed to making ‘mistakes’ and said ‘I’ve done things I shouldn’t have done’.
He even admitted that if Jac, 33, had behaved the same way he did, he would have walked out on their relationship, saying: ‘If it was the other way around I’d be gone.’
Jac, however, did not leave. Instead, she chose – publicly at least – to rebuild, standing by her husband as they attempted to move forward.
And when Jac reprising her role as Lauren Branning, I’m told the balance of their family life quietly shifted, with Dan increasingly taking on day-to-day responsibilities at home – something, friends say, he embraced.
‘Jac is a busy working mum. Over the last couple of years it’s Dan who has been doing all the school pick-ups and drop offs, the play dates and after school clubs,’ one source says. ‘The girls have remained in the family home with their mum but they spend a lot of the week with their dad.’
Alongside daughters Ella, 11, and Mia, seven, Dan also continued to co-.
The couple split when Megan was pregnant and Dan was already seeing Jac by the time Teddy was born in December 2013.
‘Like any blended family life can be tricky at times,’ the source added. ‘But the girls love their older brother and Dan has done everything he can to make sure Teddy was a part of their family.’
Dan pictured without his wedding ring last week. Last year, Dan bought a £1.3million bachelor pad behind his wife’s back
There were, too, signs that Dan had begun to prepare for an ending long before it formally arrived.
Last year, Dan bought a £1.3million bachelor pad behind his wife’s back – a move which insiders say was to provide him with security knowing his marriage was , as Jac was the sole owner of their £2million family home.
The purchase is said to have left soap star Jac feeling ‘betrayed’ and it had ‘reignited old trust issues.’
Located in Southend, Essex, the two-floored house boasts a ‘show stopping’ open plan living and kitchen area, plus a luxury bar inside a bespoke outbuilding.
An insider said at the time: ‘Dan bought a house last year without telling Jacqueline until the final stages.
‘He put the wheels in motion because he believed their relationship was coming to an end and with Jac owning their marital home, he needed to look after his future.
‘It caused a blazing row between them and the trust, which was already fragmented, really suffered.’
After news of their close friendship came to light, Christine, 38, said she was ‘absolutely adamant nothing sexual happened between them both,’ while Dan suggested the messages were ‘deep fakes or AI.’
And yet, for all the attempts to repair what had been broken – the reconciliations, the holidays, the effort to rebuild a life that, from the outside, still appeared intact – those close to Dan and Jac say the outcome had long since been set.
So when he finally walked away in November, telling Jac ‘it’s over,’ it brought to a close a marriage that had seemingly never fully recovered from what came before.
