Emma Bunton has revealed her time apart from Jade Jones worked wonders for their relationship in the early days.
The Spice Girls singer met the Damage star in the late '90s when she was 21 and he was 19 and she instantly knew he was her "soulmate", but they split up the following year and were apart for about a year and a half.
Discussing the break with close friend Holly Willoughby on the presenter's By The Light of the Moon podcast, the 45-year-old explained that the split gave them time to grow as individuals.
"We would talk about children, it was very intense very quickly. Both of us knew we wanted to be together. We're soulmates," she shared. "(But) it hit us that we were so young and both of us haven't done everything, we did have a break.
"I think it was more, 'Oh my God, we've met the person we're going to spend the rest of our life with and we're 19 and 21,' it was such a bizarre time."
When Holly asked if the break helped, Emma gushed that it "was amazing" when they got back together.
"It gave us time to grow as people and when we came back together it was amazing," she said. "But we needed that time to go, 'OK, I've met that person that I'm in love with and want to spend the rest of my life with, what do I kind of need to do in this little time just to explore and know it's 100 per cent?' It worked a treat."
Emma and Jade married last year. They share sons Beau, 14, and Tate, 10.
