Ricki-Lee Couler has lifted the lid on her disastrous first marriage to Jamie Babbington.
The Australian Idol star, 38, married the Gold Coast builder in 2007 when she was 21, but now admits she never wanted to walk down the aisle.
Ricki-Lee started dating Jamie when she was just 15 and he was 23.
The marriage lasted just over a year, and the singer’s publicist issued a statement at the time confirming that they had separated due to “distance and time apart.”
Ricki-Lee opened up about her failed first marriage on her Nova FM radio show on Monday, telling her co-hosts Tim Blackwell and Joel Creasey that she actually wanted to break up with Jamie before he proposed.
Ricki-Lee Coulter, 38 (pictured), revealed she never wanted to marry her first husband Jamie Babbington (right) at age 21, but felt pressure after he proposed in front of her family on a holiday.
“I got married very young, I got married when I was 21 and I was with this guy, but it wasn’t a great relationship,” she lamented.
“I was trying to find ways to break up with him and I just couldn’t wrap my head around it.”
Ricki-Lee then recalled the awkward moment Jamie proposed to her in front of her family.
Ricki-Lee opened up about her failed first marriage on her Nova FM radio show on Monday, telling her co-hosts Tim Blackwell and Joel Creasey that she actually wanted to break up with Jamie before he proposed.
“I was young, I didn’t want him, you know? But then he proposed to me in front of his whole family on vacation in New Zealand,” she said.
“And I was literally, at that moment, trying to figure out how to break up with him.”
In 2014, the Can’t Touch It hitmaker made headlines after opening up about the “awkward” moment she realized her relationship with her teenage girlfriend was over.
Speaking on the Kyle and Jackie O Show, Ricki-Lee He confessed that he secretly cried during one of their last intimate moments together in bed.
‘It was like… I don’t really love you anymore and this is awkward. She was crying secretly.’
That same year, Ricki-Lee also admitted that her strong feelings about not having children may have partly led to the breakup of her first marriage.
Ricki-Lee, whose difficult childhood is behind her decision not to have children, told Fitzy and Wippa in New FM that she felt “pressure” to have children with Jamie before they separated.
“I was young, I didn’t want him, you know, but then he proposed to me in front of his whole family on holiday in New Zealand,” she said.
“The difficult thing was that I got married, stupidly, when I was 21 and he really wanted them (children),” she revealed.
And I felt this pressure that he wanted to have children, and that maybe I was going to change how I felt about it and the things I wanted to include in my life, to make him happy.
“My ex wanted to have seven kids and I said, ‘Come on, girlfriend.’ No way. Have fun finding someone who will have seven kids with you!”
Ricki-Lee began dating her manager Richard Harrison in 2009 and the couple married in 2015.
Ricki-Lee began dating her manager Richard Harrison (right) in 2009 and the couple married in 2015.
