Nicholas Sparks & his wife separate after 25 years of marriage

Nicholas Sparks

‘Tis the season for beginning and ending celebrity marriages, apparently. This newest split arrives with much irony. Nicholas Sparks, the scribe known for such “romantic” tomes like Message in a Bottle and Safe Haven, announced that he and his wife of 25 years have separated. Cathy Sparks, who served as the muse for Nicholas’ books, is out the door. She’ll never haunt him in a set of daily letters spanning decades of star-crossed love. Perhaps that’s not a fair assessment. We don’t know what happened here, but I carry enough side-eye for Nicholas’ racist, homophobic ways to assume he may not be a nice guy behind closed doors. Something is amiss. Here’s the sanitized press announcement:

There will be no storybook ending for Nicholas Sparks and his wife Cathy — the woman who inspired so many of the best-selling author’s novels.

The king of the love story, who has penned 17 romantic novels — nine of which, including The Notebook, have been made into movies — is splitting from his wife of 25 years.

“Cathy and I have separated,” Sparks, 49, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “This is, of course, not a decision we’ve made lightly. We remain close friends with deep respect for each other and love for our children. For our children’s sake, we regard this as a private matter.”

The couple, who married in 1989 — seven years before The Notebook made the young Notre Dame business school grad a literary star — have three sons and twin daughters, ranging in age from 23 to 12.

Though he’s a master at telling love stories, Sparks has always been reluctant to offer real-world romantic advice.

“I don’t like to give marriage tips,” he told PEOPLE in 2003. “There are people who are probably much better at marriage than I am – they’ve lasted a lot longer. I could probably learn from them.”

He always spoke of Cathy, a former lending-company account executive, as his muse. In a PEOPLE interview two years ago, the North Carolina-based couple spoke of how they kept the fire burning in their marriage.

“The marriage relationship has to be primary — it’s one of the best things you can teach your children,” Nicholas said. “So we don’t feel guilty if we go for a walk, just the two of us.”

[From People]

It’s always sad when a family breaks up. Sparks has always pushed his family man image at book signings and film premieres. Do you think this split will affect his art? He might start writing bitter novels about romance gone wrong. That would be interesting, much more so than his schmaltzy tales of destiny, unbreakable love (in the face of such odds!), and all the stuff he lathers, rinses, and repeats in every book. The backstory of this real-life split could probably fill a trilogy, but that’s only a guess.

In other news, Nicholas just launched a furniture collection with Walmart. With five kids (and five rounds of child support), he’s gonna need that money.

Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN

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53 Responses to “Nicholas Sparks & his wife separate after 25 years of marriage”

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  1. kri says:

    The dog ate his Notebook. No, I am NOT showing myself out for that one-I’m sprinting for the Fire exit.

    • mimif says:

      Lol kri. And tell me what’s going on with that last picture. The bangs, the surprise, the concealer…I feel like I’m looking through a kaleidoscope of wtf.

      • Haolebunny says:

        mimif- I was thinking the same thing- so much wtf in that last photo! I was sitting at my desk, cracking up laughing at it.

      • Kiddo says:

        It’s what a person looks like after making a deal with Walmart and having their soul sucked out through their nose=soul lobotomy.

      • littlestar says:

        He kinda looks….. High… In that last picture. High on the success of his amazing books perhaps?

      • Esmom says:

        I know, and don’t forget the carefully styled and sprayed bangs. Yikes.

        I am a huge reader but I have to say I have always given his books a wide berth.

  2. aims says:

    I’m not a fan of his, and his movies are painful to watch. That being said, it’s always sad to see a family break up.

    • Erinn says:

      I’m with you. Even families that ‘should’ break up – it’s still miserable for everyone involved. I am however, happy to say I’ve never watched more than a commercial for one of his movies, and have never picked up one of his books.

      • LizLemonGotMarried says:

        I’m with you guys. I cannot stand what little exposure I’ve had to his books/movies-and I suspect ANYONE who pushes the Notebook on me-but I still hate for a marriage of 25 years to fall apart. Although, if I was married to the mind that wrote some of these plots, I would have left years ago.

      • Zwella Ingrid says:

        I don’t read romance, and I never saw the notebook, so I know nothing about him. I do feel bad for any couple who has been married that long, and then breaks up. Seems like with that much time invested they could make it work.

    • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

      Agree. It’s sad.

  3. OSTONE says:

    He has a creepy aura to him, can’t put my finger on it. Either way, never have I ever cried to a Nicholas Sparks Movie/Book.

    *shameful raises hand and bolts out the door*

    • OSTONE says:

      *shamefully

    • Izzy says:

      No shame. I haven’t either, and I’m proud of it.

    • Scarlet Vixen says:

      There is NO shame at all in NOT crying to any Sparks crappola. You should be proud. There is shame if you actually do cry, tho. 😉

      Now, I am ashamed to admit that I have actually attempted to read any of his crap. It is SO bad. And boring! I’m a librarian, so it was job related. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

    • Lou says:

      I cried when James Garner cried in the Notebook when the old lady had to get sedated after forgetting who he was. But I didn’t cry at the plot. I cried because James Garner is an amazing actor.

      Nicholas Sparks is a load of hooey. But James Garner is the shiznit. I love him.

  4. Jaderu says:

    It’s because he didn’t hold her face while he kissed her in the rain.
    YOU HAVE TO HOLD HER FACE!

  5. Jaded says:

    I wonder if he sent her the separation papers in a bottle.

  6. Tiffany says:

    Someone has a boyfriend and it is not the wife.

  7. lisa2 says:

    Maybe he spent too much of his time writing about these EPIC loves and not enough time Living an Epic love story.

    Breakup are not great.. but sometime people are greater for them.

  8. clara says:

    They don’t look old enough to have been married for 25 years!

    • Tiffany says:

      The story says that their oldest is 23 so they were 23/24 when then married, which is pretty young.

  9. Izzy says:

    Maybe she just got tired of having to hear about his crappy writing all the time. Or maybe she finally clued into the fact that him writing about epic love… does not an epic lover make.

  10. Christo says:

    I would not be surprised if his protestations and homophobia aren’t a good indication of what his true self wants because his writing is certainly an idealized embodiment of what a perceived, fairytale, elusive straight relationship would be from an outsider’s perspective—like a homophobic preacher espousing the virtues of love, marriage, and children, who simultaneously uses crystal meth and has sex with a male prostitute on the side. His “alive” face says it all for me.

  11. Neelyo says:

    Jeez, he laid on the foundation a bit thick in that last photo. I thought it was Lena Dunham.

    I wonder if that lawsuit about his religious school was ever settled. I find it odd that he opened a religious academy in the first place. Bizarre creepy guy.

  12. Maddie says:

    Danielle Steel look out Sparks will be taking over your throne.

  13. Rachel says:

    After I watched The Notebook, I thought Nicholas Sparks might be amazing. But, several other movies and books later, all I realized is that he’s a hack. Besides the fact that I haven’t liked a single movie or book after The Notebook, a lot of the stories are strikingly similar. In fact, two of the books I read were so similar that when I read the second one, I got confused and thought I read it already. It wasn’t until I was holding both books in my hands that I realized he’s just a lazy writer.

    • Lou says:

      he is such a hack. I loved the Notebook when I saw it as a teenager. But then you see him attempting to recreate it in all his other cruddy books, and the magic is gone.

      In hindsight, he fluked that one. It’s actually a stupid story about two obnoxious people. It’s just that the movie was well cast.

  14. DenG says:

    He knows what it takes to hook a sap. What’s with his Surprised Eyes and aw-shucks smile? Yeah, I’ve never read his books and only saw The Notebook because of James Garner. No to all the other films.

  15. Wren33 says:

    1. She is gorgeous.
    2. He is a hack.
    3. I feel like 25 years of marriage and several kids is a success, even if it ends in divorce.

  16. Sayrah says:

    I’ve never read his stuff but I hated that Notebook movie. Gag

  17. lucy2 says:

    I think his books are dreadful, but he’s raked in a lot of money from them. I wonder if the divorce will get messy because of the financials. For the sake of their kids, hope it’s not bad.

  18. LAK says:

    My black heart can’t take anymore of these sappy romance stories. Bring on the bitter twisted ones!!!

  19. Source says:

    Think about it. All of his books have two people falling in love, followed immediately by one of them dying. His version of love is idealized, and the couple remains frozen in the honeymoon phase.

    Does he even know how to write an actual relationship? Because it seems to me he keeps everything idealized.

    • Ellen says:

      Source you beat me to it! my biggest complaint is that you see any trailer for a Nicolas Sparks movie and it’s time to “guess which one dies”. I guess his muse didn’t oblige him by dying young so he could love her for all eternity.

      • Source says:

        Yes. It’s a shame when you can’t manipulate real-life people like you can a character in a book.

  20. Isabelle says:

    She couldn’t handle the writing god he is; remember this is the man that Cormac McCarthy should bow down & worship.

  21. Anotherdirtymartini says:

    My FIL has given me two Nicholas Sparks books, but I can’t! I just cannot!
    I’ve never read his books – never seen his movies. They seem so schmaltzy & sappy.

  22. Katherine says:

    I hope they had lovely and fulfilling 25 years. They’re still young enough to start a new, happy chapter in their lives. If it wasn’t working anymore then no sense in prolonging it. Best to each of them.