Olympic gold medallist Dame Denise Lewis has split from her music mogul husband Steve Finan, The Mail on Sunday has been told.
The couple, who met at the Brit Awards, are understood to have separated in recent months after 18 years of marriage.
Friends say that Mr Finan, who was the late Liam Payne’s manager for seven years, has moved out of the family home in Buckinghamshire where the couple lived with their three sons.
The split is widely known within the music industry, where Mr Finan, 60, is regarded as something of a ‘heavyweight’.
One source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘It’s such a shame because they are both lovely people and were always thought of as a wonderful couple.
Denise Lewis and husband Steve Finan The British Olympic Ball, London in 2012. The couple, who met at the Brit Awards, are understood to have separated in recent months after 18 years of marriage
Denise Lewis speaks out during coverage of the Olympics in August.
‘Despite trying to make it work, Steve and Denise just found themselves drifting apart from one another.
‘In the end they decided that breaking up was probably the most sensible thing to do.’
The glamorous heptathlete, 51, who is the President of UK Athletics, did not wear her wedding ring on air throughout her stint as a pundit for the BBC’s Olympic Games coverage in the summer.
She and Mr Finan also no longer follow each other on social media.
Both were left devastated by Liam’s death last month after he fell from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires.
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Mr Finan was among the team that masterminded Liam’s solo career after he split from One Direction, and Ms Lewis – who was given a damehood for her services to sport last year – was extremely close to the singer.
The couple supported him during his split from Cheryl Tweedy and his difficulties with drugs.
Liam, 31, was a regular visitor to their home in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, and later bought a mansion less than a mile away.
Ten days ago, Ms Lewis shared an emotional tribute to the star with a collection of photos of the pair over the years – and wrote that his ‘dark storms’ have now passed. She also thanked the singer for ‘being so sweet’ with her children and said that he was ‘more loved than you could grasp’.
Ms Lewis first met Mr Finan, the son of comedian Tom O’Connor, in 2000 through mutual friends at the Brit Awards when he was then a pop manager looking after Neneh Cherry, Madness and All Saints.
They met again after she split from the Belgian sprinter Patrick Stevens, the father of her daughter Lauryn, and began dating.
Ms Lewis, who appeared on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2005, has spoken about her relationship with Mr Finan.
Ahead of the couple’s wedding in 2006, she confessed: ‘I was still with Patrick when I first met Steve, then we met again more recently and it was sort of love at second sight.’
Denise Lewis attending The Sun Who Cares Wins Awards at The Roundhouse, London in September 2023
Mr Finan (L) pictured with the late Liam Payne. Liam, 31, was a regular visitor to the couple’s home in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, and later bought a mansion less than a mile away
In 2017 to celebrate their 11th wedding anniversary, Lewis wrote on Instagram: ‘Thank you to all my friends and family who have been there for us through the good and not so easy times, but the biggest thank you goes to my “Man of Steel”… it’s a good job you like a challenge.’
One year later, in an interview when Ms Lewis was pregnant with the couple’s third child, Mr Finan said: ‘Denise is an amazing mum and she loves babies. I’ve told her she needs to open a birthing suite if she wants any more.’
Ms Lewis is one of Britain’s most decorated athletes.
She won the gold medal in the heptathlon in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and a bronze in the same competition four years before in Atlanta.
When approached about her marriage split, Ms Lewis declined to comment but did not deny their separation.
Neither Mr Finan or a spokeswoman for Ms Lewis responded when offered the opportunity to comment.