Like Kaiser, I was not shocked by Fergie and Josh Duhamel’s split. I wasn’t shocked by their relationship either. To me, they seemed like two people who really liked each other but were never truly on the same page. I don’t think either is to blame for that and I think they worked through a lot more issues than most couples would. However, after 13 years together, people want answers as to what happened. According to Us, the couple’s split was always a matter of “when” and not “if.” Sources supposedly told the magazine that Josh wanted more kids and a normal/Midwest childhood for their four-year-old son, Axl, and that Fergie was too much of a rock star to provide that.
The news stunned fans. Just six days earlier, the 42-year-old “M.I.L.F. $” singer had raved about her sex life in a radio interview on Cubby and Caroline in the Morning, revealing she had a locked closet of “mature” costumes: “I run around my house like I’m a ninja pirate or I’m Supergirl meets Batgirl.” And Duhamel, whose teacher mom Bonnie and advertising salesman dad Larry split when he was young, has insisted divorce was “the last thing he wanted” for himself.
Pals say it was inevitable. “Friends have been expecting them to split for a while now,” one source close to the parents of 4-year-old Axl reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly. The problem, says the source, is the Minot, North Dakota-raised actor (he played quarterback for his hometown college) and the reformed L.A. party girl — she’s copped to developing a drug problem while performing with ‘90s trio Wild Orchid — “are just too different. Josh is a normal guy and Fergie wants to have this Hollywood celebrity lifestyle. They just grew apart.”
As recently as January, the couple of 13 years were desperately trying to keep it together. After the holidays, an insider revealed at the time, the pair were trying to make good on their plan to give Axl a sibling. “There’s been a lot of talk about expanding the family this year,” says the insider. “They are hoping to have a baby in the near future.”
Instead they birthed more arguments. Though the pop star told Us in 2014, “We definitely want another,” a Duhamel pal says she “wasn’t as into it” as him. While the oldest of four, “has always wanted a big family,” notes the source, “that lifestyle is something that isn’t a priority for Fergie. She came from divorced parents and didn’t have as normal of a childhood as Josh did.”
So as Duhamel stressed over recreating his Midwestern upbringing for Axl — “He tries very hard to make sure he’s brought up as normal as possible,” says the source — he’d get annoyed when Fergie didn’t follow suit. “He felt she wasn’t doing normal mom activities,” explains the source, “and that made Josh frustrated.”
Sorry, what are ‘normal’ mom activities? I would classify feeding and clothing a child under normal and it looks like Axl is well-tended to. So, what is Fergie failing to do? Drive carpool? Make the beds? Have 16 different DIY Slime websites bookmarked? Because I’m not sure which part of “a multi-platinum musician” would make anyone think she should? Unlike Fergie I wouldn’t go on a radio station and discuss my cosplay (and The Mister is behind me laughing as he imagines what our cosplay might actually look like) but Fergie has always appeared to be an involved and loving mother, let’s not wave this June Cleaver bs her way.
In Touch said the bigger problem was trust issues, stemming from Josh’s alleged dalliances back in 2009. (I am required to use alleged.) I imagine the reason for the relationship’s decline lies somewhere between the wanting/not wanting more kids thing and the trust issues. Josh is a friend of a friend so I’ve run into him – briefly – a few times. I want to believe this source is not coming from him, because I like him, but it’s a little hard not to suspect his camp. This is unfair to Fergie. If anything, she’s mellowed since motherhood. Maybe she didn’t want more kids and didn’t learn that until she had one but that’s happened to a lot of us. As I said, I agree with everyone else that there was always a sell-by date on their relationship and I’m willing to leave it at that. I hope their parting doesn’t become a nasty back and forth – I want to go on liking both of them.
Photo credit: WENN Photos and Getty Images
Ugh. Of course it’s easy for a dude to want a huge family. Wonder if he’d feel the same if he had to be one to carry for 9 months at a time although, I suppose they have enough dough to pay for a surrogate…Eh. I want to believe that they just grew apart, not this shit narrative that Fergie isn’t a good mom because she doesn’t parent the same way Josh does.
Also, she looks really hot in that last photo. Damn.
@Kitten, it’s US Magazine. They make so much stuff up anymore. He had wanted a large family back when they first got together, and she said two, and they agreed on two. And he said that was fine. And there’s nothing wrong with that. All people negotiate that. I doubt one thing split them up. Two celebrity couples with busy careers takes a toll on a marriage because you can be away from each other a lot.
I saw Josh and Fergie and her family on Oprah’s show on OWN years ago in I think 2012. They had been together since 2004. This was when they were trying to get pregnant when the show aired. She’s very family oriented. Her parents are wonderful, were teachers. Josh’s parent was a teacher. She and Josh are both Catholic and attended church together. He said they had far more in common regarding their upbringing than people realize. They had loving families in common. Her parents love Josh and said they were supportive of them as a couple through everything.. She said her parents were close, even though divorced. So none of that US article rang true.
I’m sad for the breakup. But I choose to believe what Fergie said after the announcement, which shows a couple who still have a lot of love for each other.
“Fergie, who is mother to four-year-old Axl, said: ‘We’re great friends, Josh and I, there’s so much love that we have for each other. We really like each other. We have fun with each other. We’re just not a romantic couple anymore. But we are still Axl’s parents through and through, and our families – each other’s families, the cousins, my nieces and nephews – it’s all the same. So that’s the only thing that’s changed.’”
Her church outfit irks me.. it looks like she just rolled out of bed. I would have more respect for the occasion and my family by making more of an effort there. Also CDAN blinds have said they’re been separated for awhile. That she’s partying again and Josh is basically a single dad. When Ferie has her child a nanny is always with her as well.. to make sure Axl is properly cared for. Who knows how true any of that is though.
Well you certainly seem to believe it. Maybe if Fergie wore clothing you approved to go to church, you would have more cause to doubt it?
I like Fergie Ferg and I wish them both the best and I hope they put there child 1st before anything they seem like good parents.I always thought they made a smoking couple and there son is soooo cute
That narrative of man wants kids but wife’s career got in the way she’s a bad person/mom/cold is so dated, if it applies here. Women usually get most of that blame.
13 years and a kid they clearly both adore. This reads to me like two people who tried very hard to make it work and for probably 1000 reasons have decided they are better off apart. No shame in that. I’ve always liked the heck out of both of them and hope they find happiness – the kid deserves to have two parents who respect each other and are happy, even if they are apart.
Perfect post. I agree.
Josh,
banging hookers is not normal. don’t blame your wife for your own demons.
-women everywhere
Oh please. Im so sure Him banging other women that weren’t his wife had nothing to do with it! She was is and will be successful singer after this divorce and she will be the good mom im assuming she already is. Hopefully Josh didn’t spin this shitty storyline to make her look bad.
Why did they have to bring up her admitting a drug problem from the 90s up? That has nothing to do with her “party girl” image now or even 5-6 years ago.
I read rumors that he broke it off because she is relapsing, apparently she’s been partying more than ever and not being present for her son.
Did he want a stay at home mom or a soccer mom? Surely it seems like he didn’t want Fergie for who she is, respect goes both ways and you should learn to compromise (Josh).
Sounds like once again a man marries a woman and expects her to change without discussing that with her first. Again tabloids are sexist so may these source quotes are exaggerated by the tabloid but I remember reading Josh had a cabin in Minnesota that he loved to take his son to experience life outside of LA similar to what Josh experienced but Josh mentioned Fergie had yet to visit. That to me shows a huge difference between how they want their son raised which you’d think would be addressed with someone before you decide to have kids
Jeez. They lasted 13 years. Give both of them some credit. They obviously were a couple that worked as a couple for years even with busy careers at certain periods, and didn’t just throw away the marriage or force either to change. It wouldn’t have lasted that long if that were the case. And you distill it down to “once again a man marries a woman and expects her to change” all off a tabloid article.
Beautiful little boy