Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell end their marriage

Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell have “decided to end” their marriage.

In a social media post, Sturgeon said the couple had been separated for some time.

Murrell was accused of embezzling SNP funds in April as part of a police investigation into the party’s finances.

The sturgeon was arrested and released without charge in June 2023. She insists she did nothing wrong.

The former prime minister said the decision to end the marriage was taken “with a heavy heart”.

She posted on Instagram: “For all intents and purposes we have been separated for a while now and think it’s time to update others on where we stand.

“It goes without saying that we still care deeply for each other and always will.”

Sturgeon said the pair would not make further comments.

Police Scotland have spent more than two years investigating what happened to £660,000 in donations made to the SNP by pro-independence campaigners.

Sturgeon and Murrell’s home in Glasgow was raided by officers in April 2023.

Police also raided the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh and confiscated a luxury campervan parked in Murrell’s mother’s driveway in Fife.

In September last year it emerged that officers had sent prosecutors details of what they had discovered in an ‘advice and guidance report’ and were seeking formal advice on what they should do Next.

The update concerned Sturgeon and former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie, who are both under investigation after being arrested and released without charge in 2023.

At the time, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said the police report was being investigated.

Police Scotland said they were awaiting instructions from COPFS “on what further action should be taken”.

They were Scotland’s political power couple for almost a decade.

While Nicola Sturgeon led the Scottish government, her husband Peter Murrell led the party she was leader of, the SNP.

Ms Sturgeon’s predecessor, Alex Salmond, once told me that he privately warned the couple in 2014 against concentrating so much power in one household.

I have not been able to verify his account, but since then other SNP members have publicly questioned this organization.

In recent days, the former prime minister was quoted in the Financial Times, apparently describing her work-life arrangements as “consumer-intensive for a long, long time.”

Any crossover between the political and personal lives of Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell has come under renewed scrutiny since police began investigating the SNP’s finances.

Whatever the outcome of this ongoing case, it is clear that the power couple at the center of it are now living separate lives.