Backstreet Boys’s AJ McLean and wife Rochelle announce separation after 12 years of marriage

‘It is with deep love and respect that we have made this decision,’ former couple writes in a statement

Backstreet Boys singer AJ McLean and his wife, Rochelle Karidis, have confirmed their plans to divorce after 12 years of marriage.

The 45-year-old dancer shared a post to his Instagram on 1 January to announce the split, nearly one year after he first revealed that he and Karidis were temporarily separating. Back in March 2023, the former couple told E! News in a statement that they were taking time apart to work on themselves, in hopes of building a “stronger future” together.

Now, McLean has shared an update about his marriage, revealing that amid their separation, he and Karidis have decided to officially separate.

“As you all know we have been separated for over a year now,” the recent Instagram statement, signed by McLean and Karidis, reads. “While we hoped for reconciliation, we have decided to officially end our marriage. It is with deep love and respect that we have made this decision.”

The pair went on to note that amid the split, they’re continuing to prioritise their two children: Elliot, 11, and Lyric, six.

“Our focus now is moving forward in the healthiest possible way with friendship and co-parenting our girls,” the former couple, who first got married in 2011, continued. “At the forefront of this next chapter, we appreciate your kindness, respect, and privacy at this time.”

They concluded: “Thank you, Alexander and Rochelle.”

Last year, McLean and Karidis first revealed that they were taking time apart, while describing their hope to ultimately reconcile. “We have mutually decided to separate temporarily to work on ourselves, and on our marriage with the hope of building a stronger future,” they told E! News at the time.

“The plan is to come back together and continue to nurture our love for one another, and our family," their statement concluded. "We ask for respect and privacy at this time.”

McLean’s recent statement about the separation only comes a few months after he opened up about his relationship status. During an episode of Cheryl Burke’s Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast, which aired in November 2023, he’d first shared that while he and his then-wife were living separately, they were “both in couple’s therapy” and “in individual therapy”.

“We talk every day, we are spending more time together,” he said, at the time. “We just have to rebuild something that was never there from the beginning.”

Although they’ve now split, McLean had also told Burke that he and his then-wife had learned a lot throughout their time apart.

“I came with baggage, she came with baggage, she had trauma, I had trauma,” McLean said, while also opening up about his sobriety journey after struggles with drug and alcohol. “I wasn’t sober or ready to get sober. She was dealing with her own s***. It was just a constant push-pull. She would sweep her feelings under the rug or I would dive into a bottle.”