Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces separation from wife Sophie

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on social media Wednesday that he and his wife Sophie are separating after 18 years of marriage. 

"After many meaningful and difficult conversations, we have made the decision to separate," Trudeau wrote on Instagram.

His wife Sophie posted a similar message on her account. The couple has three children — 15-year-old Xavier,15, 14-year-old Ella-Grace and 9-year-old Hadrien.  They asked the public to respect their privacy for the "well-being of our children."

The couple, who married in 2005, often supported each other in the public sphere. In a Vogue magazine article, the couple recounted how they knew each other as children when Sophie was in the same primary class as the future politician's brother and then meeting again at a Montreal charity event in 2003.  A few months later, the two went out for dinner and at the end, they told Vogue the prime minister said "I'm 31 years old, and I've been waiting for you for 31 years."

Trudeau will be the first prime minister to go through a separation while in still office since his father and mother split in 1977. According to the National Post, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's wife Margaret left her husband — who was 29 years her senior — and three sons to move to New York City. She filed for divorce six years later.