Was this Tess and Vernon's last chance to save their marriage? Stars jetted away to sunshine paradise (where they avoided sharing snaps of each other)... now their marriage is over

Could Tess Daly and Vernon Kay's sun-soaked trip to the Caribbean just three weeks ago have been the last chance to save their 23-year marriage? 

The couple announced their separation on Friday, admitting they had agonised over the decision, but were determined to continue to be supportive parents to their daughters Phoebe, 21, and Amber, 16. 

Despite both jetting off to the island paradise together, Tess, 57, and Vernon, 52, avoided sharing snaps of each other on their social media pages.

They opted instead to pose alongside their eldest daughter Phoebe who had also joined them on the luxurious trip to promote Tess's Naia Beach swimwear brand.

Gone were the couple's once beaming selfies, with Tess choosing bizarrely to only show the back of Vernon's head as he sat on the beach before heading into the sea.

In his update, Vernon had captioned: 'Very grateful for a knockout week in the sunshine…And proud to be rocking men’s swim shorts.

'I am biased as they’re a Tess Daly design, but they are the comfiest shorts I’ve ever drank rum punch in!! (And swam in of course!!).'

But although he praised his wife on her design skills, he still failed to share any snaps of her from the getaway. 

In a joint announcement, the former Strictly Come Dancing host and Radio DJ said they had reached a mutual agreement to go their separate ways, though friends of the couple said they were both still at their marital home in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, yesterday.

The couple wrote: ‘After much consideration, and with a deep sense of care and respect for one another, we have made the decision to separate amicably.

‘This has not been an easy choice, but it comes from a place of mutual understanding and a shared desire of what is best for both of us. We remain great friends and, most importantly, fully committed to our roles as loving and supportive parents, which will always be our priority.

‘There are no other parties involved in this decision. We kindly ask for privacy during this time. We will not be making any further public comments.’ 

But while it may have come as a surprise to outsiders, sources close to Tess and Vernon say they have spent a ‘significant’ amount of time coming to the decision and their daughters were ‘completely involved’ in the conversations. 

‘Tess and Vernon are actually really, really happy now,’ a friend told Daily Mail's Katie Hind. 

‘They’re still living together for now though that will of course change in the near future. The girls were very much part of the decision. They had grown apart, they are different to when they first met. They acknowledged that and decided life would be better if they were to split.

'They are both in their 50s, they have so much time left and they have decided they would be happier not being together so that’s what they’ve done. It is all very, very amicable. They have lived through so much together, they have had so many happy times.

‘They have had more than two decades of laughs and are extremely proud of their girls but they know splitting is for the best.’

Sources say there is no third party involved and it is understood that divorce lawyers are yet to be instructed but that the plan is to do so down the line.

Tess previously claimed that she wanted to be 'selfish' and have a 'grown-up gap year', just a day before her split from Vernon was confirmed. 

The former Strictly Come Dancing host, who quit her coveted role on the BBC programme after years of prioritising her work, is said to be 'desperate to see the world' after 21 years on the show. 

Sources told of how Tess hoped to go away 'for a whole year', but Vernon would only be able to travel for a few weeks given his work commitments. 

They said: 'Tess always put Vernon and the girls first and now she wants to be a bit selfish and make the most of their situation and her new-found freedom.'

The source added to Closer magazine: 'She has been working since her teens and never really got to do all the travelling. She feels she's missed out even though she knows how lucky she is.

'Vernon says they couldn’t really do a whole year as he has his Radio 2 show, but he likes the idea of jetting off for weeks at a time, then coming home.'

The couple began dating back in the early 2000s when Tess hosted children’s show SMTV and Vernon was a model trying to make it as a television presenter.

They were widely regarded as a bubbly, carefree pairing – when they married at St Mary’s Catholic Church in Horwich, near Bolton, where Vernon grew up, they had a VW camper van as a wedding car.

They have been regarded as one of the strongest marriages in show business, despite Vernon being caught ‘sexting’ Page Three model Rhian Sugden in 2010.

Tess was devastated when she learned that Vernon had been messaging Rhian, 39, after meeting in a Bolton nightclub.

While they didn’t have a sexual relationship, a distraught Tess battled to save their marriage and eventually forgave him.

Rhian later spoke about the scandal in Channel 4 documentary Page Three: The Naked Truth. She said: ‘He just got away with it. It ruined everything for me. I felt like I was going up and up with my career and then that came along. I wish I’d never met him. He got to give an apology on the radio and just got to carry on, with Family Fortunes, ironically. It still makes me feel sick.’

Vernon also admitted to sending flirty messages to ‘four or five girls’ during the same period.

‘I’ve let down my wife Tess. I’m an idiot,’ he confessed on-air. ‘I’ve been stupid and daft but I’m not a sex pest.’ 

Vernon’s extra-marital activities didn’t only devastate Tess, but also saw his career take a nose dive. Once the golden boy of ITV, he lost his job hosting Family Fortunes and struggled to get high profile, lucrative work.

Their split comes just five months after Tess hosted her last ever Strictly, which she had fronted with the late Sir Bruce Forsyth since it launched in 2004.

Even during the last series, Vernon was a regular at Elstree Studios, where the programme is made, to support his wife. A friend of Tess’s said: ‘It’s all changed for her within six or seven months. She’s happy.’

Last month, Vernon opened up about his family's 'changing' dynamic, while insisting he and Tess's daughters will never be pampered nepo babies. 

He said he and his now ex-wife have always instilled a strong work ethic in their daughters, encouraging them to 'go out and graft'.

'Now that Phoebe is 21 and Amber is nearly 17, our relationship with them is changing. We talk about encouraging them to leave the nest and be independent but we don’t really want them to.'

He went on to reveal that the couple fear for their children, remembering the terror of drink spiking when Phoebe was old enough to go clubbing. 

'You have to learn to enter their world and that world has pitfalls that just didn’t exist for us.'