"The other Wiggles didn't know." Emma Watkins on receiving the first call about her break up.

When Emma Watkins and Lachy Gillespie announced the end of their marriage in August, it was also news to the other members of The Wiggles.

The couple, whose decision to part ways happened “organically” over the course of eight months, had wanted to keep their break up secret until the end of the year.

“We started to spend more time with our families, and that started to become quite a priority for us,” Emma told ABC’s Australian Story on Monday night. “I think there was a realisation that romantically, it just wasn’t going the way that our friendship was going.”

But then 28-year-old Emma got a phone call.

“When the media first called, I think initially I thought, ‘Oh, no. They don’t really know what’s going on,'” she said. “And then as the hours kept going by I kept getting more calls and I thought, ‘Oh, OK. I think people know more than we thought they did.'”

The news of their break up had been leaked to the media, forcing the couple to release a statement to Instagram.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

⭐️ Lachy ⭐️ We have, and continue to share, the most beautiful life together, but we wanted to let you know that privately for the last six months we have been navigating through a trial separation, and we have made the decision to separate as a couple. Throughout that period, we have performed hundreds of shows together and that is always a continued source of joy for us both. We have embraced this as a very positive change in our relationship. Our incredible friendship has been strengthened throughout this time and what we have discovered is that, more than ever, first and foremost we love and adore performing as Emma and Lachy in The Wiggles and having the privilege of celebrating this happiness with extraordinary families around the world. We have chosen a different path to travel in our personal lives, but please know that we are stronger than ever and we can’t wait to see you at a show soon. We will not be commenting beyond this, and we thank you in advance for respecting our privacy. Lots of love, Emma and Lachy xx @lachy_wiggle

A post shared by Emma_Wiggle (@emma_wiggle) on Aug 2, 2018 at 9:39pm PDT

“The other Wiggles didn’t know,” Emma told Australian Story. “I don’t really think many people knew about it. Lachy and I, we still really wanted to work on our relationship, and work through some things together.”

“We’re filming every single day for a new Emma series. And so during all that was when all the media broke, and I just kept thinking, ‘I can’t read that, I’ve got to read lyrics for a song.’ And so, I think being busy has been very helpful. Now it feels like a bit of a relief. Now it feels like we can still work on that relationship, and we are.”

Emma told the program that while the Australian media doubts the affection she shares with Lachy, “we genuinely care about each other”. 

“We have been through all of this together. Out of everybody, the only person that really gets me is Lachy.”

The episode of Australian Story, titled The Show Must Go On, also focused on Emma’s health struggles with endometriosis.

“About a year or so after the wedding I started feeling really tired and run down. I started to have bleeding every day,” she said. 

“However, when you’re on the tour and when you travel so much, your cycle goes out of whack. And so I think initially when the bleeding started to continue, I just thought maybe I was really in tune with other women. And so I thought that my cycle was just hopping on to other people’s.

“I honestly… I just didn’t think that much of it.”

Then one day in the studio, Emma started to feel “incredibly sick,” and ended up collapsing.

Despite being encouraged by family, friends and her fellow performers to see a doctor, Emma continued to put it off. When she eventually did see a specialist, Dr Jason Abbott, it was “crystal clear she had endometriosis”.

She underwent surgery in April, having to pull out of a number of Wiggles shows.

Emma is now back on stage with The Wiggles, and says Lachy has been “so supportive”.

“I really can’t thank him enough in all of this,” she said. 

So it seems like ‘break up registries’ are a thing… and we don’t know how we feel.