Back in May, news that Tess Daly and Vernon Kay were separating after 22 years of marriage shocked the world, with an interview of Kay’s now re-emerging suggesting a period of “change” was already underway for the couple.

Earlier this year, the BBC favourites released a joint statement sharing that they had “made the decision to separate amicably”, adding that there were “no other parties involved in this decision”.

The former Strictly Come Dancing host, 57, and Radio 2 DJ, 52, share daughters Phoebe, 21, and Amber, 17, and said that they would “remain great friends and, most importantly, [were] fully committed to our roles as loving and supportive parents”.

But while the announcement might have come as a surprise to the public – particularly given Kay’s outspoken support of Daly following her exit from Strictly the previous year – fans are now looking at an interview Kay did one month before publicly announcing their separation for signs of a shift in their relationship.

Speaking to The Times, Kay discussed watching his children grow up, now that his eldest daughter Phoebe was studying in New York.

“Now that Phoebe is 21 and Amber is nearly 17, our relationship with them is changing,” he told the publication. “We talk about encouraging them to leave the nest and be independent but we don’t really want them to. You have to learn to enter their world and that world has pitfalls that just didn’t exist for us.”

Speaking about his father’s own regret for not being present for Kay’s childhood, the presenter explained: “Tess and I have both been fortunate to spend a lot of time with Phoebe and Amber, but the core lessons remain the same: you’ve got to go out and graft.

“That’s something we’ve tried to instil in our girls. They’re still working out what they want to do but we’ve told them, ’Your mum and I aren’t going to give you everything.’”

Just last week, Daly teased that she was working on an exciting new project with her eldest daughter Phoebe.

While Daly and Kay publicly claimed that their split was amicable, sources alleged that the marriage had broken down because Daly remained angry about her husband’s 2010 “sexting” scandal involving former Page 3 model Rhian Sugden.

At the time, Kay admitted to sending explicit texts to around five women, going on to apologise to his two million listeners on Radio 1 for being “foolish and stupid”.

The pair met at a BBC Christmas party while working as up-and-coming TV presenters for rival channels in 2001. Kay proposed on Christmas Day 2002 at Daly’s parents home, and the pair married the following September near his hometown of Bolton, just 20 miles from where Daly grew up in Stockport.

The exes own a five bedroom Buckinghamshire home worth an estimated £3 million, which they bought 22 years ago for £1.18 million.