Jake and Sophie Quickendens Shocking Split Revealed

With dad Jake playing on a games consul and mum Sophie curled up in a plush armchair next to him, the last social media sighting of the Quickendens together was in March. It was a picture of relaxed family life featuring two of their three children, which had been the couple’s stock-in-trade on .

Since they married four years ago, Jake – he found fame on the 2014 series of The – and star Sophie’s Insta-grids have been chock full of similar snaps of them as doting parents and dewy-eyed partners.

But the oh-so romantic image was shattered this week as news emerged of the couple’s split.

While it was reported initially that they parted in recent days, I can reveal that Jake and Sophie, who appeared on in 2018, have been separated for weeks.

And it appears that Jake’s gruelling workload is at least partly responsible.

One source close to the couple said: ‘Jake has had a lot of work commitments in recent months and has been away a lot. It was putting a strain on their marriage, and ultimately, they decided it would be better to separate.

‘They were a lovely couple, and there is no bad blood between them but this isn’t as recent as people are making out – there have been issues for some time.’

A second source claims: ‘Jake and Sophie have been separated for a while.

‘He hasn’t been staying at their family home in Essex, but still spends a lot of time at the house. Jake has been renting a property nearby, so they have space.

‘Their main priority is the kids, and they are focusing on co-parenting and what is best for them.’

That last picture of them was taken in March while they were staying at the Cave Hotel in Canterbury, a luxury golf and wedding retreat. But since then family photos posted online have only featured one of the parents.

Their 2022 wedding must now feel a lifetime ago.

Jake, 37, and Sophie, 33, began dating in 2018 and got engaged three years later in Rhodes, Greece.

They tied the knot in Ibiza, surrounded by their loved ones and reality-star pals, with Sophie wearing an ethereal lace gown.

‘It’s such a cliche thing to say that it was the best day of our lives, but it honestly was,’ gushed Jake.

They went on to have two children, Leo, five, and Kit, 15 months, while Jake is stepfather to Sophie’s son Freddie, 12, from a previous relationship.

But in February, Jake began touring with a production of Rita, Sue And Bob Too! in which he plays married man Bob who has an affair with two teenage schoolgirls. And it seems that Jakes’s real-life marriage lies torn in its wake.

As the show began its six-week run in Liverpool, some 200 miles from the family home, Jake said online how hard it was to be away from his children: ‘I’ve got to work, and I’ve got an amazing wife at home who understands and is just the captain of the ship.’

Still, he could at least see their faces every day via FaceTime, he added.

And it wasn’t the first time Jake admitted how difficult it is to find a healthy work-life balance.

‘I think everyone goes through relationship troubles, it happens when people are away from home, they break down,’ he confided to me in January 2023.

‘You have to make time for each other and turn your phones off, stop thinking about life,’ he said.

I could sense back then the frustration in his voice that their online followers form opinions of him based on the copious amount of content he posts online.

‘Until you meet me you can’t have a judgement on me,’ he explained. ‘Instagram shows the high life, but some days I wake up and worry about stuff, not everything is perfect. We have rows...’

But living their life on social media has helped the Quickenden brand, which in turn has led to paid endorsements and a swelling bank balance. And Sophie is looking to capitalise further.

In recent years, the qualified beauty therapist has been posting as an influencer. Now, she is starting her own business and has filed documents to register her company Fig Tree Talent Ltd.

The nature of the business, of which Sophie is the sole director, is ‘management consultancy activities other than financial management’.

What comes of that, fans will have to wait and see.

Jake meanwhile has been posting more of himself and his mother Lisa.

The pair took Leo and Kit on holiday to Cornwall earlier this month, and shared a series of sweet pictures of the boys eating ice cream and playing by the sea.

Acknowledging that it has been a difficult couple of weeks, Jake wrote in the caption: ‘Honestly, after being away on tour for ages and doing some serious miles on the road, I really needed a little break to Cornwall for me and my brain… this place just makes me feel centred and calm.’

In the past, Jake has been admirably candid about his battles with anxiety, which he said can leave him lying awake in bed worrying for hours.

In 2020, Jake’s mental health got so bad that he quit social media after being branded ‘worthless and irrelevant’ by trolls.

He also sunk into depression following the death of his brother Oliver, 19, in 2012 from bone cancer, which had followed his father Paul’s passing in 2008, also from cancer.

In 2016, he told Loose Women: ‘I dealt with it badly. I dealt with it by drinking a lot, I went out most nights and drank myself stupid.

‘All I could say about anyone going through the same thing is: “Don’t be afraid to talk about it. Talk to your family”.'

The abuse Jake has received online can’t have helped his mental health.

Following Leo’s birth, trolls claimed the newborn ‘needs Botox’ and that he was ‘weird looking’.

And Jake has admitted to finding the cruel comments hard to read.

‘When you do have a platform, unfortunately, you’re always going to get it,’ he explained. ‘You’re going to get people questioning your decisions, you’re going to get people questioning the way you father.