The time has officially come for Ashley Darby.
In an interview with The Dailey Dish this week, The Real Housewives of Potomac star confirmed that she has filed to divorce husband Michael after 10 years as husband and wife.
The announcement came two-plus years after Darby told folks that she was separating from her spouse.
Ashley Darby attends Hayu FanFest 2024 at Magazine London on October 26, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images)
“Signing divorce papers is bittersweet. My friend put it this way: leaving a marriage is like leaving a house you’ve created memories in for years,” Darby told The Daily Dish via email late last week.
“Just before you close the door for the last time, you think back on all the incredible things you created together like your children and lasting memories, and then you just have to close the door and move on.”
Ashley and Michael shares sons Dean Michael and Dylan Matthew Darby.
She acknowledges that the estranged spouses will therefore always hold a special connection to each other.
Ashley Darby attends the alice + olivia by Stacey Bendet Spring 2023 Presentation on September 10, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for alice + olivia by Stacey Bendet)
“Even though I’m not romantically invested in Michael, he will always have a very special place in my heart,” she added.
“It’s a love I can’t even begin to explain, especially sharing our two amazing sons, Dean and Dylan. I’m incredibly inspired by my future – cheers to more healing, thriving, and twerking!”
Continued Darby, aware that she has been separated for a long while, but that divorce is another “official” step entirely:
“I have the freedom to do life my own way, and I’m very excited to see what that looks like.”
Ashley Darby attends the opening night of 2019 BravoCon at Hammerstein Ballroom on November 15, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
It’s worth noting that Ashley is 29 years younger than her soon-to-be-ex.
But she insisted in 2022 that such an age difference played no role in their break-up.
“We are aware that there will be many speculative views as to why we have made this decision,” the couple said back then.
“People will be quick to assume that the causes were too much intrusion by reality TV into the most personal parts of our lives, age gap issues, cultural problems, or child-rearing differences.
“Pieces of all these may have affected our pure love for each other, but no one reason is the root cause of our mutual decision to go our separate ways.”
Ashley Darby attends the OK! Magazine Summer Kickoff Party at Magic Hour at Moxy Times Square on May 15, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
Ashley and Michael hope to have their paperwork submitted, signed and completed by the end of the year.
On Season 9 of The Real Housewives of Potomac, Ashley said she and Michael are “cordial and co-parenting well,” later adding to Bravo in a different interview:
“Michael and I are doing pretty well with co-parenting.
“There was a stint there where we were ‘parallel parenting.’ Parallel parenting is where you really don’t talk at all. So thankfully, we’re not doing that. Co-parenting is a little different in that we actually communicate. We’re actually conversing. We had Halloween together with the kids the other day, which was nice.”
Ashley Darby Files to Divorce Husband, Releases “Bittersweet” Statement was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.