Love Island stars Maura Higgins and Chris Taylor have announced their split.
The couple first went public with their romance in November 2020, when Taylor said he “fell in love with his best mate”.
Higgins first found fame on the 2019 series of Love Island, when she was paired up with Curtis Pritchard, and she has since appeared on Dancing On Ice.
Taylor was a late arrival to the series and left the show with Harley Brash.
Higgins confirmed their split on Instagram, writing: “It breaks my heart to even type this but I wanted to let everyone know that myself and Chris have made the joint decision to end our relationship.
“There is no wrongdoing on either side… we still love, care & respect each other deeply. From the minute we met each other we’ve been very close friends and that will never change.
“There is no regret, life is about taking chances. We wanted to make this work but we have realised we work better being friends.
“Whilst I appreciate people may speculate or create false stories this is the truth.
“I wish Chris nothing but the best and I will always be one of his biggest supporters. Thank you for all the love & support.”
Taylor added that the pair were both going through “a very tough time” and asked people to take any speculation about their split with “a metric tonne of salt.”
The 2019 series of the show was won by Amber Gill and Greg O’Shea and also featured Tommy Fury and Molly-Mae Hague.