Michelle Bridges' ex husband didn't want their marriage to end.

Her fitness empire was rapidly gaining ground, her television career had taken off and she was fast becoming a household name. But as Michelle Bridges‘ success sky-rocketed her marriage was falling apart.

Now her ex-husband and business partner says the two were closely related.

In an interview on last night’s episode of Australian Story, Bill Moore offered a frank insight into the collapse of his 10-year marriage to the fitness phenomenon. “In hindsight, we probably both chose the business over the relationship,” he said. “Maybe that was the baby that we didn’t have.”

Bridges, who now lives happily with Steve "Commando" Willis and their baby Axel, concedes that things with Bill became stagnated as everything else powered ahead.

"We both ended up feeling like we were living with our business partners," she said during the episode. "Bill and I spoke about it a good 18 months before I decided finally to separate."

Yet despite the mutual recognition, and apparent forewarning, Moore admits that the split still came as a shock.

"You know, that was a very difficult time," he said. "I felt that I didn't want to leave the relationship. I didn't want it to end. But Michelle had sort of: for her, she wasn't in the same space."

via ABC.

The pair struck up a romance in 1999, before marrying in 2003.

"Michelle, at that stage, she was hungry. She was very ambitious," said Moore. "As a fitness instructor, she was phenomenal. I thought, 'Whoo. This girl has got some stuff going on'."

It wasn't instant romance though. In fact, Bridges apparently formed a pretty quick opinion of her future beau.

"I saw her and I said, 'Well, your legs look amazing.' And she told me some years afterwards that, the moment I said that, she instantly compartmentalised me into 'dickhead'," laughed Moore.

Bridges and her ex-husband continued to work closely together after their separation, and remain very close.

"The level of success and notoriety and fame, I guess, that she's managed to achieve is quite amazing," he said.

Read more about the controversial episode of Australian Story here.