Paul Sampson breaks his silence over 2014 split with Sky Sports presenter Kirsty Gallacher

Sky Sports presenter Kirsty Gallacher and her ex-husband Paul Sampson toasted their 2014 divorce from opposite ends of a champagne bar.

The couple were in a feud after calling it an end to their 15 years together and they had one awkward drink sitting far apart at the plush bar.

But the ex-England rugby ace decided to go over and finally call a truce to call an end to the bitterness.

He told The Sun on Sunday: ‘She got quite annoyed but I said, “Look, this doesn’t have to be a war.”‘

Paul was speaking publicly for the first time since the pair’s split six years ago.

He said: ‘I could have had plenty to say, especially after Kirsty gave one or two interviews that indicated I had packed a bag and left the family home.’

He revealed how Kirsty announced she wanted a divorce while he was in a pit of depression after hanging up his rugby boots, compounded by the death of his father.

The former London Wasps player, 42, struggled with becoming a stay-at-home father while his wife was travelling the world for Sky Sports.

He has now launched his own life-coaching business to help sports players and separating couples.

He said: ‘When you come to the end of your career you think you’re a bit washed up. It was a tough time. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.’

Paul is father to two sons now aged 13 and 10 with Kirsty.

The glamorous couple met in 1999 shortly after Paul had won his first cap for England and Kirsty was made the new face of Sky Sports News.

They married in 2010 in a £50,000 ceremony in Spain but their relationship started to wobble the following year after Paul’s retirement from rugby due to injury. 

He went into a depression and did not know what to do with himself, a situation worsened by the fact he had failed to come to terms with his father’s death in 2004.

Kirsty would call an end to their four-year marriage in 2014.

The presenter has previously revealed that her own father, Scottish golfing legend Bernard Gallacher, had his own brush with death in 2013, which prompted her to leave Paul and start a new life.

The couple had a year of legal wrangling to thrash out the divorce but Paul insists the pair are still amicable.

He now lives in Windsor while Kirsty recently bought a £1.4million farmhouse mearby after selling their Surrey home for £895,000. 

Kirsty’s younger sister Laura is married to Russell Brand, while she has endured a number of high-profile relationships with Danny Cipriani, Laurence Fox and Jack Whitehall.