Australia’s favourite small-screen actress Asher Keddie has split from husband Jay Bowen after five years of marriage.
The Offspring star and her musician/actor husband are believed to be on good terms following an amicable break-up which reportedly took place last December.
One of Australia’s most in-demand actresses, Asher is yet to comment on the split since news of it emerged over the weekend.
The Weekly spoke to Asher and her husband about their relationship last year, just weeks before it ended.
“She was just so compelling,” Jay Bowen said of his wife, reminiscing about their first meeting which was “love at first sight” for the couple almost eight years ago.
When the question of starting a family with Jay came up, Asher revealed that she hated being asked about it, and told The Weekly she didn’t believe she needed to have babies to be considered a success.
“Why are we only considered successful if we can juggle a family and a demanding career?” she said.
“I admire people who can do it, don’t get me wrong. But I feel successful not doing it as well. I don’t think, ‘Oh gosh, I won’t be quite there and I won’t be as successful as I want to be unless I’m juggling a couple of kids, a marriage and a career.
“It’s not that I don’t think I can do it. It’s not that. It’s that I don’t know.”
Asher described her husband as an “awesome showman, part Michael Hutchence, part Freddy Mercury.”
Since the couple’s split became public it appears that Asher has already found new love with well-known painter Vincent Fantauzzo.
Fantauzzo is a celebrity in the art world having painted Heath Ledger, Matt Moran, Brandon Walters and Emma Hack for the Archibald Prize, and winning the People’s Choice Award twice. Most recently he won the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize for his portrait of Baz Luhrmann.
A representative for the actress confirmed with the Daily Telegraph that the pair were dating and that Asher and Jay were still great friends.
