The Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, and the journalist Sarah Vine have announced their separation after 20 years of marriage and are in the process of getting divorced.
In a joint statement released on Friday, the couple said they remained “close friends” and would continue supporting their two children, but wanted privacy and would not be commenting further.
Gove, who is also chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and Vine, a Daily Mail columnist, met in 1999 and married in 2001. A friend of the high-profile couple told PA Media they had “drifted apart over the past couple of years” but it was an “entirely amicable” split and “there is no one else involved”.
Vine, who is godmother to one of David and Samantha Cameron’s children, raised eyebrows last week when she wrote about how Matt Hancock’s resignation as health secretary after having an affair with his adviser – and breaking Covid rules with someone outside his household or bubble before it was allowed – showed that Westminster life could drive a wedge between partners.
She praised the Camerons’ commitment to one another, saying that “every time he seemed in danger of drifting away on a cloud of self-importance (usually after a few glasses of wine), she would bring him back down to earth”.
“Westminster is a place of myriad distractions for the politician seeking refuge from his or her home life,” Vine continued, adding that because power is an “aphrodisiac”, it was possible to understand “how you can go from being happily married to the kind of person who gets caught so unfortunately on CCTV”.
She added: “The problem with the wife who has known you since way before you were king of the world is that she sees through your facade” and that there were some politicians who could walk away from power and others “who will compromise everything for the sake of it”.
Westminster changes people, Vine said, commenting on how wives of senior politicians “are still more or less the same person they were when they got married” but their husbands sometimes were not.
“Climbing that far up Westminster’s greasy pole changes a person,” she wrote. “And when someone changes, they require something new from a partner. Namely, someone who is as much a courtesan as a companion, one who understands their brilliance and, crucially, is personally invested in it.
“Not someone who thinks it’s all a monumental nuisance and wishes they would get a proper job that doesn’t involve people poking cameras in your face and commenting on your poor choice of footwear.” The insight caused a stir among some commentators.
Gove had been among those tipped to take over from Hancock, but Sajid Javid was appointed. Hancock said he did not want his personal issues to “distract attention”, apologised for breaking Covid rules, and said he needed to be “with my children at this time”.
Samantha Cameron’s sister, Emily Sheffield, the editor of the Evening Standard, said it was sad to hear of the divorce. “Any family breakup is tough for all involved,” she said.
