Tara Pavlovic has revealed that she left her marriage for the sake of her children. The former Bachelor star and mother-of-two announced her split from her husband, Nick Shepherdson, after five years of marriage, in April. The 36-year-old said the split was a 'last resort' after a year of struggling in the relationship.
'Having a mother who is not coping mentally is not in the kids' best interests,' Tara told Nine Honey this week. 'I left to put myself first, but I also left to put them first, because I wasn't coping at all with the way things were.'
Tara said it was 'pretty clear' to those on social media that she had 'been struggling for almost a year now'.
'It's really hard. We're blessed, but it's really difficult,' she admitted of the split, and settling into life as a single mum. 'Obviously, I don't want to normalise everyone getting a divorce. It was a last resort, and I don't want to ever glamourise it or anything like that.'
Tara announced the end of her marriage in April in a solemn Instagram post. 'I know there's been a lot of speculation about what's been going on in my life lately, so I wanted to share this in my own words. Nick and I have separated,' she wrote. 'This hasn't been a quick or easy decision. It's something we've been trying to work through for a long time, and for a while, I honestly didn't even know what the outcome would be. But after a lot of thought, I've come to the decision that this is what's best moving forward.'
The last eight months have been incredibly challenging, and I know many of you have probably felt that through my content as I have been an absolute mess. There's been a lot happening behind the scenes, and a lot I've been processing privately. Our kids will always be our priority, and everything I've done has been with them at the centre of it. As hard as this is, I truly believe this is the best thing for them, because they deserve a happy, present mum and I finally feel like I'm getting back to that place.
Tara said that she was holding onto excessive stress due to the breakdown of her marriage and felt her body was now at peace. 'I don't think I fully realised how much it was affecting me until I started to feel calm again. Sometimes your body knows long before your mind is ready to accept it,' she wrote.
The former reality star said that she won't be sharing details of what led to the split but was doing 'okay'. She wrote in her caption: 'I know there's curiosity, but with children involved, some things will remain private. It's hard to navigate when my job is to literally share my life with others but I'm sure anyone with a reasonable thinking brain will understand why I won't share the intimate details of this. My priorities here are the kids and making sure the co-parenting relationship is healthy for them. I'm finally feeling back in alignment with myself, and for the first time in a long time, I feel excited for what's ahead. Do I believe in love anymore? Absolutely not. But I hope one day I will again.'
Tara and Nick have two children, son Paddy, four, and daughter Edi-Rae, three. The pair tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in September 2020, after being forced to postpone their wedding in April due to the pandemic. 'I finally got to marry my best friend yesterday, I love you Nick,' she captioned a picture of their wedding rings. Tara revealed she was expecting her first child in October 2020, only a month after she and Nick had married. The former couple went public with their romance in August 2018, just two months after reports Tara had separated from her Bachelor In Paradise fiancé Sam Cochrane. The pair had known each other for 10 years before exploring a relationship together in 2018. Tara rose to fame on Matty 'J' Johnson's season of The Bachelor in 2017.
