Iker and Sara announce split - but 'remain friends' and will 'share children's upbringing'

SAD news from Celebworld: Spain's 'golden couple' Iker Casillas and Sara Carbonero have separated.

Rumours of a gradual distancing over the past few months had been dismissed out of hand by fans, especially after the former Real Madrid goalkeeper and Spanish national team captain was seen completely broken and emotionally exhausted as his TV reporter and fashion designer wife was operated on for what has since been described as 'a minor setback' in her recovery from early-stage ovarian cancer.

But a message from Sara, 37, on her Instagram page, accompanied by the above black-and-white shot of her and Iker, 39, in happier times says that 'today', their 'love as a couple has taken different paths'.

Different, but not 'distant', she says, and they will 'remain together in the wonderful task of continuing to be dedicated parents' as they have 'always done'.

Sara, who now works as presenter on the radio station for sports newspaper Marca, which was the company where she launched her journalism career 15 years ago, says the 'respect, affection and friendship' between her and Iker – now management advisor for Real Madrid and the 'bridge' between the players and the board of directors – will 'always be there', and that their priority is to 'share the wellbeing and upbringing' of their sons, Martín, seven and Lucas, four, 'from a point of view of love and commitment'.

They intend to work together to 'protect' the boys so they can 'grow up in a stable, healthy environment', Sara concludes, adding that she and Iker will not be making any further comments on the matter.

Speculation began after Iker bought an apartment in his own name when the couple moved back to Madrid at the end of last summer following five years in Portugal, when Iker was playing for FC Oporto, although again, fans assumed the sole name business was perhaps for tax or expenses purposes or that the apartment was a pied à terre for Iker's new job.

His bolt-hole is said to be very close to the couple's villa in the élite La Finca, a gated urbanisation in the up-market Madrid commuter town of Pozuelo de Alarcón, in order that the boys barely notice their parents' separation and can hop naturally and easily between their two homes. 

It has also just come to light that after Iker picked up Sara from Madrid's University of Navarra Hospital following her operation in early February, just two days after her 37th birthday, they went out for a meal and then left the restaurant separately.

The couple, one of several celebrity pairings who have been dubbed 'the Posh and Becks of Spain', have had an extremely stressful two years which would have taken their toll on anyone and harshly tested the union in any relationship.

Days before Iker's 38th birthday in May 2019, he collapsed suddenly on the pitch whilst training with his team – and it turned out to be very lucky that he was not alone, since upon being rushed to hospital, it transpired he had had a heart attack.

A panicked Sara, who had been working in Cádiz at the time, caught the first plane out via Madrid to the family home in Oporto to be by her husband's bedside, and they posed together for a photo after Iker had come round from having stents fitted.

Barely a fortnight later, though, Sara revealed that following a routine gynaecology appointment, she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer – but that, unusually for this type of tumour, which is nearly always discovered too late and has approximately an 80% mortality rate – it had been caught in time, and doctors were talking of a 'complete cure'.

This still meant six traumatic months of chemotherapy following surgery, then radiotherapy, meaning she was barely able to work for a year.

By then, Iker had come to terms with the fact that his heart condition meant his goalkeeper career was over, prompting the family's decision to move back to Madrid.

Initial reports after Sara was admitted for surgery last month claimed her cancer had come back, but later headlines referred to it as a 'minor setback', and the radio DJ herself called it an 'ITV' (MOT), which she said she had 'passed'.

With all of this still raw and having gone through some of the universally-acknowledged top stressors in less than 21 months – serious illness, a partner's serious illness, a job change, a 'forced' job change, and a house move – it would have been difficult for their relationship to come away entirely unscathed, even if it did remain entirely intact.

For these reasons, fans of each of them, and of both of them as a unit, are hoping Sara and Iker actually only need some time apart to clear their heads and work out what they really want, and that their separation might, eventually, turn out to be only temporary.

They won the hearts of the nation from the moment their union was confirmed, unequivocally, on live TV in summer 2010 as the Spanish team captain passionately kissed the young lady reporter minutes after the country won its first-ever FIFA World Cup, in South Africa.

In any case, the fact that they remain close friends and are jointly actively involved in their sons' upbringing has been evidenced by their latest Instagram post – a video of the four of them playing ludo together.