This Morning star Dr Ranj was married to a woman before he came out as gay – and now she has broken her silence on their “painful” divorce. Sulvinder Samra tied the knot with the Strictly Come Dancing star in 2006, but by 2011 they were divorced – two years after Ranj confessed he was gay to his wife. He later moved on to a relationship with a man, but Sulvinder now admits she was left “hurting”.

Now she has broken her silence on social media, on what would have been their 20th wedding anniversary. She wrote on Instagram: “I grew up being told that I must set a good example, get a good education, a good job, and an Indian husband. It was a strict upbringing and the responsibility felt heavy. I saw university as an escape route.

“After some rebellion, I graduated, got a job as a pharmacist, met my future husband and started married life. Married life was not easy and then the cracks started to show. What I will say is there is not a lonelier feeling than feeling alone in a marriage.

“When it ended, both parties were hurting, and a divorce was the only option. I mourned. It was heavy because the future I thought I had was gone and the person that I thought I had married was gone as well.”

She added: “I questioned everything. I felt extremely unattractive. I was ashamed. I believed I was not good enough. I no longer felt at home in London and yet I had spent my whole life trying to escape my roots.

“So I went back home as home felt safe. So I did what I knew best. Worked hard. Pleased others. Took pleasure in the pat on the head. But then the resentment grew. I always missed the burnout signs until they were too late.

“Then I turned 45. I thought ’Is this it? Is this what my life is going to be? I had no balance. It was all work. I was miserable. It was eating away at me.

“I desperately wanted change but I didn’t know how. So at first it started with the outside. How I looked. Once I started to change, my external world did too. Work was the same and no longer the right fit so I quit. Just like that.

“I created a business. Set my work hours around my life instead of the other way round. I could be more present. Working on my feelings and dissolving old beliefs is really where the big shifts have happened. I now know that I am more than enough. We all are.”

Sulvinder said that instead of settling down and having kids, she had a “messy and painful” divorce admitting: “I was carrying beliefs from a failed marriage – I could not trust anyone. I did not trust myself.

“I believed I wouldn’t be a good mum, I’m not good at relationships, I did not deserve any happiness.”

She said she felt “dead inside” until turning her life around. After Sulvinder’s beloved sister was diagnosed with cancer, she dedicated herself to taking care of her as well as running her business.

It comes after Dr Ranj also broke his silence on marriage, explaining: “I was married and obviously that relationship broke down and then it was dealing with everybody else, friends and family. It happened when I'd got to where I was thought I was supposed to be.

“I had the career I'd always wanted, I always wanted a home of my own. I'd ticked all my boxes. So the big question was, why am I still not 100% happy? Why does it still feel like something's not right? And that's when therapy brought all of that stuff out," he told The Big Issue.