‘We’re no longer together as a couple’: Campaigner Vicky Phelan on marriage break-up

Vicky Phelan has spoken about the end of her marriage two years ago, saying she and husband Jim are still "great friends".

Cervical cancer sufferer Vicky has said that she and Jim are no longer together but still live as a family with their children Amelia and Darragh. "We’re not Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin now, it’s not a conscious uncoupling," she told The Mirror. "We get on very well, we’re great friends. It’s better for the kids. I’ve had a lot of advice on this. "If myself and Jim were not getting on and we were killing each other, obviously somebody would have to move out – but we get on fine." Continuing, Vicky said that they made the decision to part ways before the Cervical Check scandal broke in 2018. Vicky was one of hundreds of Irish women who was misled about her smear test results by the HSE. She is now terminally ill.. “It’s just as well we had everything ironed out before everything happened last year because it would have been much harder to do in the public eye. We’d already made that decision just before my cancer came back. "There was nobody else. Nobody had an affair. It’s just circumstances, we’ve grown apart." Vicky said that accepting the relationship was over helped them to move forward. “When we made the decision to just forget about it as a couple it made things much easier and we’ve actually started getting on better. There’s no pressure and no expectation, we’re just parents. We’re happy with that, both of us."

Read more: How Vicky Phelan changed Ireland: The inside story of a fight for justice