KIIS FM radio host Yumi Stynes has broken down live on-air as she announced her split from her husband of nine years.
Stynes, 46, who co-hosts 3pm Pick-Up with Kate Langbroek and Monty Dimond, revealed she had separated from her second husband, Martin Bendeler, whom she shares two children with.
While Stynes didn’t reveal the reason for the break-up, she did hint it wasn’t mutual after appearing to suggest her ex had changed the locks to the house they shared.
“I’m going through a separation at the moment, and there’s kids involved and my ex is involved, so I don’t want to say anything that hurts either of those groups of people,” Stynes began.
“I’ve had to find an apartment, and so stuff like moving all my stuff, I’ve got all my crap in boxes and bags … And (I’m trying to) assess what the hell my life is. Get my own car. Change my address. Throw out the keys that don’t work anymore,” Stynes added before breaking down in tears.
“So it’s been a lot. I spent most of the weekend and Monday moving and I feel like I’m starting with my new life as a single mum. Here I am again.”
Stynes and Bendeler were married in 2012 after Stynes proposed to him on a leap day. They share a six-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son.
Stynes was previously married to Regurgitator rocker Ben Ely, 51, from 2000 to 2008. They share two children, Anouk, 19, and Dee Dee, 17.
The TV personality added that she has more she wants to share about her split, but said she isn’t “ready”.
“I’ve got hundreds and thousands of words I want to say. I do really love being able to honest and I’ve felt this bottled up in me for the last few months. Breakups, they’re not over quickly,” Stynes said.
“I’m gonna be in this process for another year, I reckon. I wanted to break the seal, as it were, and say this is part of the reason I’ve been up and down lately and I probably will be up and down in the future.”
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Stynes, who didn’t often share photos of her husband on social media, paid loving tribute to Bendeler in September 2019 as part of a wider post about women needing reliable men as partners in order to “have it all”.
“I was a single parent for a couple of years. It was tough. The entire domestic and mental load was mine to deal with,” Stynes wrote at the time.
“This Melbourne Writer’s Festival I’ve been thinking how behind the creative work I do is a man who supports and enables me and he does that by stepping the f**k up and being steady and kind and allowing me to treat my work like it matters.”
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