The celebrity chef and his wife have decided to separate, PEOPLE confirms
Anthony Bourdain and his wife Ottavia Busia, a mixed martial arts fighter, have separated, PEOPLE confirms.
News of their split first broke on Page Six, who reported from a source close to Bourdain that, “They’ve been separated for a while,” but “there was no one else involved.”
The couple — who were first married in 2007 — have one daughter, Ariane, 9, together.
Bourdain, who travels “250 days a year” in part for his CNN show Parts Unknown, recently spoke with PEOPLE while promoting his latest project, his “dysfunctional family cookbook” Appetites.
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“I have a completely dysfunctional…” he said, trailing off. “I love my family but it’s not an ordinary family.”
“If I’m not traveling, I’m pretty much doing jack s— on a Friday night,” he told PEOPLE. “I’m going to bed when my nine-year-old decides to go to bed. If I’m home, I’m not going to the hot new restaurant, I’m not walking a red carpet, I’m cooking something that my daughter decides she wants, or staying very close to home.”
Of their relationship, Busia clarified, “Because of professional decisions we both have made, my husband and I have been for years in an unconventional relationship. Nothing has changed. We love each other. We respect the decisions the other has made. And we’ll always consider ourselves a family.”
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Busia has recently posted photos with Bourdain training together in Southampton, New York, having a family water gun fight and last week, the fighter congratulated the chef on Instagram for his recent Emmy win.
This was Bourdain’s second marriage. He split from his first wife, Nancy Putkoski, in 2004.