Sulvinder Samra has spoken publicly for the first time about her "messy and painful" divorce from television personality Dr Ranj Singh on what would have been their 20th wedding anniversary.
Ms Samra, the former wife of the This Morning and Strictly Come Dancing star, posted a candid message on Instagram on Thursday about the impact of discovering her husband was gay.
The former pharmacist, who was married to Dr Ranj for seven years, said the life she had planned for herself was replaced by heartbreak when he revealed he wanted to end their marriage to pursue relationships with men.
"I never wanted these words to be my story," she wrote.
Dr Ranj Singh publicly came out as gay around 2015
|GETTY
The couple married in 2005 in a traditional Sikh ceremony before divorcing in 2011, two years after Dr Ranj came out to her.
Ms Samra said the breakdown left her questioning everything about herself and struggling with feelings of shame and inadequacy.
"I believed I was not good enough," she wrote.
"I felt extremely unattractive."
Sulvinder Samra shared the revelation with her Instagram followers
|She added she felt "dead inside" while outwardly appearing to cope.
Ms Samra explained she carried damaging beliefs from the failed marriage into future relationships and found it difficult to trust either others or herself.
"I could not trust anyone. I did not trust myself," she recalled, adding she often chose partners who would protect her heart rather than allow genuine intimacy.
The experience also led her to abandon hopes of becoming a mother.
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"I accepted that I would only be an aunt," she wrote.
"That having children was not my future."
Ms Samra said her upbringing had come with clear expectations about education, career success and marrying an Indian husband.
She described it as a strict environment where responsibility weighed heavily on her shoulders.
After graduating and beginning a career as a pharmacist, she met Dr Ranj and embarked on married life.
However, the social media influencer said difficulties soon emerged within the relationship.
She wrote: "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."
The TV doctor first realised and accepted his sexuality during therapy sessions when he was 30 years old
|GETTY
When the marriage ended, Ms Samra said both she and Dr Ranj were suffering and divorce ultimately became the only viable option.
She returned to her family home in Nottinghamshire, saying London no longer felt comfortable.
Throwing herself into work, the pharmacist sought validation through professional achievement, but resentment grew, and burnout became a recurring pattern.
At the age of 45, she reached a turning point.
"I desperately wanted change, but I didn't know how," she wrote.
Twelve years after the divorce, Ms Samra left her pharmacy career and retrained as a nervous system coach, helping clients manage stress and recover from trauma.
As she began building her new business, her sister was diagnosed with aggressive cancer, prompting another shift in priorities.
"She became my priority," Ms Samra wrote. "Family is my everything."
Dr Ranj Singh and Sulvinder Samra married in 2006
|Dr Ranj, now 46, also spoke about the end of the marriage this week during an interview with The Big Issue.
The television doctor said therapy helped him realise he was not living authentically despite achieving many of the goals he had set for himself.
He said: "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 per cent happy?"
Dr Ranj described the period before coming out as a time when everything was "fracturing and then falling apart".
The NHS paediatric specialist has since found support within the LGBTQ community, which he describes as his "chosen family", and confirmed his relationship with actor James Colebrook on Instagram in 2025.
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