By Brian Platt Bloomberg News
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(TNS) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie are separating after 18 years of marriage, marking an end to an unusually high-profile partnership for a leader from the country.

Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, 48, a former television reporter in her home province of Quebec, has been on the campaign trail with Trudeau, 51, through three elections and has championed the causes of women’s rights and mental health.

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The couple announced their separation on Wednesday, while also signaling they plan to continue to spend time together with their children, including on a family holiday next week.

“After many meaningful and difficult conversations, we have made the decision to separate,” the pair said in identical statements on Instagram.

“As always, we remain a close family with deep love and respect for each other and for everything we have built and will continue to build.”

The couple has three children: Xavier, 15, Ella Grace, 14, and Hadrien, nine.

In a country where the personal lives of politicians are typically left alone, the Trudeau family attracted a rare level of attention both at home and internationally. Vogue magazine published a splashy spread of the couple shortly after Trudeau was first elected to office in 2015. Read more: Pugnacious Trudeau Steps Out of Father’s Shadow Into Power

That global celebrity is an echo of his father Pierre, who served as prime minister through the 1970s and early 1980s, and whose wife Margaret famously partied with the Rolling Stones and other stars on trips to New York City.