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Nicola Sturgeon has announced her divorce from her long-term partner Peter Murrell, who was previously the chief executive of the Scottish National party.
Their decision to split is not unexpected: it is understood Sturgeon moved out of the couple’s home in Baillieston, Glasgow, after Murrell was arrested and later charged last year over the alleged embezzlement of donations to the SNP.
Sturgeon was also arrested by Police Scotland detectives in June last year and officially remains under investigation as part of Operation Branchform, but has not been charged.
Sturgeon, who has been writing a memoir due for publication this year, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over the party’s finances.
In a post on Instagram, the former first minister of Scotland said: “With a heavy heart I am confirming that Peter and I have decided to end our marriage. To all intents and purposes we have been separated for some time now and feel it is time to bring others up to speed with where we are.
“It goes without saying that we still care deeply for each other, and always will. We will be making no further comment.”
Sturgeon and Murrell were for a considerable time the most powerful couple in Scottish politics. She was SNP leader and first minister while Murrell was party chief executive – a relationship that troubled their critics and some allies.
Murrell had been chief executive from 2001 and they became a couple in 2003. They married in 2010, while Sturgeon was Alex Salmond’s deputy, after living together for some years as a couple.
In an interview last week with the Financial Times, Sturgeon appeared to acknowledge that had a cost. “It was all-consuming for a long, long time,” she said.
An SNP MSP since 1999, Sturgeon is not expected to stand for re-election to the Scottish parliament at the next Holyrood elections in 2026 and is preparing for a life outside mainstream politics.
Her recent public appearances have been with her friend, the crime novelist Val McDermid, where the pair have held a series of in-conversation events discussing their love of books with literary guests. Further dates are planned in Glasgow in March.
Her interview with the FT appeared to trigger a very rare public statement from Salmond’s widow, Moira, which reignited a simmering feud between Sturgeon and Salmond’s allies and family over his conduct towards staff and colleagues.
A Scottish government report into accusations of misconduct against him from two female civil servants was thrown out by a judge in 2019 for significant procedural irregularities and in 2020 he was cleared by a jury of 13 charges of sexual harassment involving nine women.
Sturgeon expressed sympathy for the women who accused Salmond of sexual harassment and said for the first time that Salmond could be a bully. “He would be really rough on people. Many times I intervened to stop him,” she told the newspaper.
“I’ve seen the impact not just of what they believe happened to them initially but also the impact of the way he then behaved,” she said about Salmond’s alleged victims. “It’s been pretty hard.”
In a statement issued by her lawyers, Moira Salmond said the family was still grieving his death. “In recent days, it has therefore caused me and the wider family great distress to read the comments of those who seem determined to damage his reputation even in death,” she said.
“It is difficult for us to understand what motivates those interventions, especially when such comments are made in the knowledge that Alex cannot defend himself as he would certainly have done.
“Those attacking him must know that the law does not allow us, his family, to protect his reputation from being defamed now that he is gone.”
