Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher has split with wife MEG MATHEWS just eight months after the birth of their baby daughter ANAIS.
A spokesperson for Oasis confirmed the split this morning (September 6), saying: “They have simply drifted apart over the last year or so. Their relationship started when Oasis were still in their infancy, and the couple have been together through the whole meteoric rise of the band, and the turbulent years that followed, always under the constant glare of the media. Many things have changed in that time, including themselves it seems. For the time being they have amicably decided to separate.”
Noel, 32, is thought to be planning to stay at the couple’s home in Buckinghamshire, which has a recording studio, while Meg will stay at their London flat.
The Oasis mainman and his wife were married in secret in Las Vegas in June 1997. They had met at former Oasis label Creation where former Norfolk girl Meg had been working and instantly fell in love. However, at the time, Noel said that they had “met through drugs” and worried that they may fall out of love once they both stopped taking them.
Noel famously stopped taking drugs during the recording of the band’s last album ‘Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants’ – cocaine paranoia was the inspiration behind one of the LP’s most acclaimed tracks ‘Gas Panic’.
The marriage split comes just months after it was announced that Noel’s brother and Oasis lead singer Liam had split from his actress wife Patsy Kensit seven months after the birth of their son Lennon and following a rocky three year marriage. Since then, Liam has been courting All Saints singer Nicole Appleton and Kensit has been linked with gangster’s son and actor Jamie Foreman.
However, the announcement that Noel and Meg, 32, are heading for divorce will come as a surprise to many celebrity watchers, as the couple’s marriage seemed one of the most solid in UK showbusiness.
Only Meg’s ill-fated ‘Yeah!’ column in The Sunday Times seemed to draw vocal criticisms from her spouse. The pair even sold their famous Belsize Park mansion Supernova Heights last year and moved to the country to spend more time together and escape the hectic London social scene. And after Noel quit touring with Oasis during their recent tour, the pair spent weeks together relaxing at their luxury Ibizan villa. However, the last pictures of the couple sunning themselves on the villa’s terrace showed Noel looking uncharacteristically miserable.