Ben is desperate to have closure on his doomed marriage to Stephanie but claims she is getting in the way of him signing the divorce papers
MARRIED At First Sight’s Ben Jardine has accused his estranged wife Stephanie of delaying their divorce.
Last week the property millionaire revealed to The Sun Online that he had told police officer Steph that their marriage was over after Christmas, but he now claims that she is stopping him from signing the divorce papers and getting the closure he desperately needs.
Ben told a radio show earlier this month that they had split and admitted it didn’t go down well with Steph.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun Online Ben said: “I had a missed call after I did that radio show and I don’t want to repeat… she was angry.
“At the end of the day you need to draw a line under it. Stephanie knew months before that radio interview, and I asked for my divorce papers, I’d asked and asked and asked.
“And it was like, ‘I’m never gonna get these divorce papers’, because I never got them. We’re divorced – do you know what I mean, that’s what it’s about.”
The 36-year-old said he feels “drained” by his battle to receive the papers and that those around him were in denial that the TV marriage was over.
Ben explained: “I asked and I’ve spoken… Everyone was putting their heads in the sand and saying, ‘Maybe it will still work!’ I can’t live a lie anymore and it was draining me.”
When asked directly if Steph was withholding the papers, Ben paused and sighed.
“I don’t she think was withholding them; I just tried to get - I’ve just still not got them!” he said.
He added: “We were over long before the radio show. I don’t want people telling me what to do. I just want closure, I just want to move on with my life and [signing them] is the only way to get closure.”
And in a last ditch attempt to get Steph to move forward, Ben decided to share a message with her via The Sun Online.
He said: “Apologies it didn’t work out, but you’re an amazing person, and good luck to you, you will find the person what will give you what you deserve and I’m sorry it wasn’t me.”
The law states that couples must remain together at least until their one-year wedding anniversary before they can divorce, and Ben admits he never considered this would be an issue as he always planned for their marriage – which lasted three months, to be forever.
He told The Sun Online: “I think you have to stay together for a year or whatever, the other couple have to stay together for a year or whatever, which I always thought after the six weeks we’d give it a go, but it just didn’t work out and I can only apologise for that, but it was draining me and I couldn’t be that person.
“I wasn’t [surprised I had to wait a year] because I wasn’t even thinking about it at the time. I thought I was in it, marriage is for life!
“I’ve had to learn a lot about myself, I’ve had to man up and say, ‘This isn’t working,’ and a lot of people were like, ‘Oh but it is Ben’, but you don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.”
However by the time Ben and Steph go to court, a year to the day they married, he hopes that they’ll be on civil terms.
“She said, ‘You do know you’ll have to wait until 30th September 2018’, and I said, ‘Yeah I do and I hope we can go for a coffee.’”
He added: “Hopefully before then she can meet Prince Charming who can give her everything she wants, she’s a lovely lady and she deserves the best.”
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