Nicola Sturgeon today announced she is ending her marriage to former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell.
The ex-first minister of Scotland revealed she and Mr Murrell, who married in 2010, had been ‘separated for some time now’ and she was now making the news public ‘with a heavy heart’.
Ms Sturgeon, 54, and Mr Murrell, 60, ruled at the top of the SNP and Scottish politics for many years before she stood down as first minister and party leader in March 2023.
Her resignation came weeks before both she and her husband were arrested as part of Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform probe into the SNP’s finances.
Among the dramatic developments in the police investigation was a two-day search of the couple’s Glasgow home in April 2023.
This saw a blue forensic tent erected out the front of the property, while officers were spotted scouring both inside the house and outside in the back garden.
Soon afterwards, a luxury camper van – thought to be worth around £110,000 – was taken away by police from outside the home of Mr Murrell’s mother in Dunfermline.
Mr Murrell was charged in connection with the embezzlement of SNP funds in April last year after being arrested for a second time.
Ms Sturgeon and former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie were previously released without charge after being interviewed by police.
Nicola Sturgeon has announced she is ending her marriage to former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell. Pictured: The couple at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, in 2022
The former Scottish first minister revealed the news via a post on her Instagram account
Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell began their relationship in 2003 and were married at a civil ceremony in Glasgow’s west end in 2010
In a post on Instagram this morning, Ms Sturgeon said: ‘With a heavy heart I am confirming that Peter and I have decided to end our marriage.
‘To all intents and purposes we have been separated for some time now and feel it is time to bring others up to speed with where we are.
‘It goes without saying that we still care deeply for each other, and always will. We will be making no further comment.’
Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell began their relationship in 2003 and were married at a civil ceremony in Glasgow’s west end in 2010.
In 2019, the then-first minister praised her husband’s ability to ‘de-stress’ her as she made a risqué joke on TV.
Asked on ITV’s Loose Women how she liked to unwind, Ms Sturgeon replied: ‘Well… it’s a daytime show. I like reading books. That’s a safe answer in this context.
‘Peter, yeah, he can de-stress me from time to time.’
In April 2023, shortly after she stood down as first minister, Ms Sturgeon joked that social media speculation about her private life made it appear much more exciting than it was.
She told the BBC: ‘I read accounts of my private life on social media and I think, you know it is so much more glamourous sounding and so much more exciting.
‘I have got houses everywhere if you believe social media.’
She added: ‘The fact that people still don’t think they know everything about me, well to some extent, I take that as a bit of an achievement, because I have obviously managed to protect a little bit of a private persona and that is a good thing.
Later that year, Ms Sturgeon strongly denied her marriage was on the rocks amid the strain of the police investigation.
‘We’re still married and we will be married for a long time to come,’ she told TV presenter and former Tory MP Gyles Brandreth on a podcast.
She also spoke of her ongoing sense of loss after the miscarriage she suffered while serving as deputy first minister.
‘I had a miscarriage in 2010,’ she said. ‘I didn’t speak about it at the time but a few years later I spoke about the miscarriage.
‘Because for a woman in politics who doesn’t have children, you get asked that question a lot.’
She added: ‘There have been times where I’ve not wanted kids and other times I thought, yeah, it might be nice.
‘Then there was the period where we decided we did and it didn’t happen. Is it a regret? I wish I hadn’t had the miscarriage.
‘I’ve always thought it was a girl. I’ve no idea why but I’ve always described the child I lost as ‘she’. She would be in her early teens now, probably causing me all sorts of grief.’
The couple, pictured in 2022, ruled at the top of the SNP and Scottish politics for many years before Ms Sturgeon stood down as first minister and party leader in March 2023
Ms Sturgeon, pictured with Mr Murrell in 2017, previously denied her marriage was on the rocks amid the strain of the police investigation into the SNP’s finances
In April 2023, police spent two days scouring the Glasgow home of Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell
Police were seen scouring Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell’s garden during their two-day search of the property
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Ms Sturgeon admitted being married to the SNP’s chief executive meant politics had been ‘all-consuming for a long, long time’.
Last month, Ms Sturgeon said she knew ‘nothing more’ about the police investigation into the SNP’s finances than she did when she was arrested in June 2023.
‘I know nothing more than I did back then and I can’t comment on it anyway,’ she said. ‘I am just getting on with my life as best I can at the moment.’
Ms Sturgeon was replaced as SNP leader and first minister by Humza Yousaf, but he quit after little more than a year.
Mr Yousaf’s replacement, SNP veteran John Swinney, oversaw a devastating general election result for the party in July last year.
The SNP shed 39 constituencies from the number they won under Ms Sturgeon in 2019, with the nationalists now holding only nine seats in the House of Commons.
Ms Sturgeon has been an MSP since the devolved Scottish Parliament was first established in 1999.
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