Ulrika Jonsson feared she'd 'die' never being intimate again amid marriage struggles

Ulrika Jonsson has opened up about only having one moment of intimacy in eight years with her now ex-husband Brian Monet.

The Gladiator host finalised her divorce from Monet, her third husband, in June and the pair share son Malcolm together.

Today, Johnson appeared on Loose Women for a candid chat about her relationship with Monet where she spoke of how she was "profoundly affected" by the experience of having sex just once in eight years.

“I was obviously profoundly affected by it and, to be quite honest, wondered if there was other people going through similar things. Mine, I guess, also coupled with going through the menopause and feeling different about my own body.”

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The mother-of-four divulged that she "tried very hard" to bring their lack of intimacy up.

“I was quite interested… and obviously my ex-husband is not here to defend himself," the 52-year-old told the panellists. "I tried very, very hard at increasingly regular intervals to bring the subject up, it was of great concern to me.

"We worked really well as a couple and as parents and as a family, I think it was amazing. It was 100% the reason I wanted to stay in the marriage and keep going.”

She went on to add that she feared instigating anything out of fear of being rebuffed.

Jonsson shared: "I probably only instigated it a few times because I couldn’t bear the rejection. When you sort of hope that something might happen, it could just be that those signals weren’t picked up on – maybe I wasn’t crazy raunchy enough or whatever it is – for me it genuinely wasn’t about sex, it was about intimacy.”

“I thought, ‘I want to stay in this marriage. If he doesn’t want to, I don’t want to die without having intimacy ever again’. That’s kind of how it felt," she added.

Although, the presenter did also share that she didn't fear that Monet was having an affair even though she was left "questioning everything".

She also told the Loose Women how Monet feels about her speaking about the personal subject.

Jonsson explained: “I don’t know. I see him every day, we see each other every day. He’s a really great guy, I’m absolutely devastated that the marriage came to an end. But for me the whole thing about intimacy feels like a massive taboo.

I would never dream of talking about it. But then when I thought, no this is really important.”