Dancing With The Stars' Shane and Nerida's marriage tango over

Nerida and Shane Cortese.

Dancing with the Stars couple Shane and Nerida Cortese have split after 10 years of marriage.

The celebrated couple met on the set of the first series of DWTS in 2005.
Both had partners at the time — Cortese lived with his girlfriend and Nerida Lister, as she was then, was married.

That didn't stop rumours rapidly circulating as the chemistry between them helped drive them to the final of the TVNZ show.

Nerida told Spy: "After 15 years of many fun times filled with family and friends, we recognise that people change and so do our individual perceptions of love and happiness.
"We will always have the strongest family bond and our children come first, but we both need to find our own happiness outside our marriage.

"We will continue to be a family and celebrate all the important milestones, but for now, as the best of friends."

The couple married four years after meeting — and chose the place where it all began as the venue: Avalon Studios.

Celebrity guests included DWTS hosts Jason Gunn and Candy Lane, former All Black Norm Hewitt, who won the dance competition that series and Monty Betham, Nerida's dance partner from the show's fourth season.

Cortese's Outrageous Fortune co-stars Siobhan Marshall and Antonia Prebble were also there as was his "brother" from Shortland Street, Michael Galvin.
The most important "guest" was their baby son Kees.

The husband and wife went on to welcome another son, Jett, two years later.

The couple set up house on Auckland's North Shore and flourished as a family, with Cortese juggling numerous acting and musical roles and Nerida returning to DWTS when it moved to Three in 2015. The pair have been on each other's arms as a star power couple together at many events in the Spy social pages.

Cortese, 51, is still involved in television projects and also works as a real estate agent. He told Spy he was absolutely gutted at the split. We wish them and their extended families well.