{"id":545782,"date":"2026-07-12T11:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T11:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/545782\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T11:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T11:14:10","slug":"imelda-mays-ex-calls-her-his-favourite-ex-wife-on-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/545782\/","title":{"rendered":"Imelda May&#8217;s ex calls her his &#8216;favourite ex-wife&#8217; on birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Imelda May&#8217;s ex-husband Darrel Higham has described the singer as his &#8216;favourite ex-wife&#8217; as he posts a gushing birthday tribute to her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The musicians first met in 1997. They married in 2002 before welcoming their daughter, Violet. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But in 2015, Imelda announced she had split with the guitarist after 13 years together.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI271683949.jpg\" alt=\"Imelda May pictured speaking with Patrick Kielty on The Late Late Show. Pic: Andres Poveda\" class=\"wp-image-2144598\"  \/>Imelda May pictured speaking with Patrick Kielty on The Late Late Show. Pic: Andres Poveda<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She wrote at the time: &#8216;My husband Darrel and I have split up. As you can imagine we are very sad but happy we\u2019re making the right decision for us and our daughter who is doing really well by the way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8216;No matter what you hear and read my husband and I have the deepest love and respect for each other and are doing well. We are lucky to both have such amazing family and friends.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And although the couple never rekindled their romance, the pair remain the best of friends and continue to perform together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Darrel posted a hilarious birthday wish to <a href=\"https:\/\/evoke.ie\/2026\/05\/15\/entertainment\/celebrity\/imelda-may-working-class\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Imelda<\/a> on her birthday on July 10 on social media, describing the talented singer as his &#8216;favourite ex-wife&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-12-091434.jpg\" alt=\"Imelda May and Darrel Higham on stage together. Pic: Darrel Higham\/Instagram\" class=\"wp-image-2169091\"  \/>Imelda May and Darrel Higham on stage together. Pic: Darrel Higham\/Instagram<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said: &#8216;A very\u00a0happy birthday\u00a0to the woman who, after all these years, is still my favourite ex-wife, mother to our beautiful daughter, Violet and the most talented person I&#8217;ve ever worked with. Happiest of birthdays, Imelda.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2017, Imelda previously revealed that it was her cousin\u2019s untimely death that caused her to reexamine her life, and decide to part ways from Darrel.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"650\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-117965504.jpg11.jpg\" alt=\"Imelda May and Darrel Higham perform on stage during the second day of Cornbury Festival on July 2, 2011 in Oxford, UK\" class=\"wp-image-1700483\"  \/>Imelda May and Darrel Higham perform on stage during the second day of Cornbury Festival on July 2, 2011 in Oxford, UK. Pic: Getty<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8216;We were close when we were <a href=\"https:\/\/extra.ie\/2024\/07\/02\/look-up-ireland\/35-best-free-days-out-ireland\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">kids<\/a> and she was the same age as me. That was my wake-up call. I thought [after Caroline died]: &#8220;Jesus, I need to grab life.&#8221;&#8216; she told the\u00a0Irish Independent at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8216;&#8221;Grab it by the balls and live it as opposed to make do&#8221;. I really needed to live after she died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8216;You don\u2019t know how long you have left. You presume you are going to live life to a ripe old age but who knows what is around the corner. So I had to live life \u2013 not half live it.&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imelda May&#8217;s ex-husband Darrel Higham has described the singer as his &#8216;favourite ex-wife&#8217; as he posts a gushing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-545782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}