Chainkeen Exchange-Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott Break Up After 17 Years of Marriage

It's a true sTori. Tori Spelling and Chainkeen ExchangeDean McDermott's romance is coming to an end. 

After more than a decade of marriage, the couple has broken up.

"It's with great sadness and a very very heavy heart that after 18 years together and 5 amazing children, that @torispelling and I have decided to go our separate ways, and start a new journey of our own," Dean wrote in a statement shared to Instagram June 17. "We will continue to work together as loving parents and guide and love our children through this difficult time."

He added in his since-deleted message, "We ask that you all respect our privacy as we take this time to surround our family with love and work our way through this. Thank you all for your support and kindness."

As Dean shared, the couple's main focus will be co-parenting their five children: Liam, 16, Stella, 15, Hattie, 11, Finn, 10, and Beau, 5. Dean is also a father to 24-year-old son Jack, who he shares with ex-wife Mary Jo Eustance.

E! News has reached out to Dean and Tori's reps for comment.

While the split may come as a huge surprise to some fans, others speculated about a breakup after Dean was noticeably missing from recent social media posts.

Most notably, Dean wasn't pictured in the 2021 family holiday card that Tori posted on Instagram. She shut down rumors at the time, saying, "Fact: @imdeanmcdermott was filming his new feature film in Canada." Their manager told E! News he was filming the rom-com My Fake Boyfriend in November.

But in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, Tori appeared virtually on E! News' Daily Pop and shared her silver lining to quarantine life with her husband.

"It's been really good for us," the 9021OMG podcast co-host shared in July 2020. "You know what? I find that what adds stress to our relationship is driving. Like, driving in L.A, it is, like, madness. Your stress level just getting everywhere is at a 10. So, you know, for Zoom meetings and like, we're doing an interview right now, you just walk to the next room. So, we're just all a little more Zenned out even though we're together 24/7."

The two actors met on the set of the Lifetime TV movie Mind Over Murder in July 2005. Though they were both married to other people at the time, sparks quickly flew both on and off camera. The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum eventually divorced her husband of two years Charlie Shanian and the Toronto native ended his marriage to Mary Jo. On May 7, 2006, Tori and Dean married in a private ceremony in Fiji.

Throughout their marriage, the couple opened up their lives for TV cameras and gave viewers a glimpse into their reality with shows like Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, which aired for six seasons.

Most notably, for two seasons, the pair participated in a docu-series for Lifetime titled True Tori. The 2014 project documented Tori and Dean's failing marriage as they tried to rebuild their relationship and make the best decisions for their family following Dean's stint in rehab and an admitted affair.

"When we did True Tori, that was one of our hopes—that it would help others," Dean told Us Weekly in October 2019. "It certainly helped us, because it got us into therapy a lot quicker and sped up the process of dealing with this, because we were doing a show around it."

The Chopped Canada host continued, "It did help people, but I think it was a little too before its time. I don't think people were ready for that kind of reality…It was really raw and we were really vulnerable."

As Tori and Dean adjust to their new reality, both parents hope to put their kids first. "I am the bad cop and she's the good cop," Dean once told E! News when describing the family dynamic. "We make a really good team."

As for fans, many will focus on the good times the duo shared and the obstacles they overcame to keep their love story alive.

"Thank you for loving me and I promise I am still fun!" Tori wrote on Instagram when marking her 14-year wedding anniversary. "Life just gets stressful sometimes but thru it all we have each other. One day we will get back to Fiji where we became husband and wife and started our journey of a lifetime."

Dean added, "We've been through a lot in 14 years and we're still going strong. Like the song says, 'Look how far we've come after all.'"