Vanessa Lachey has been married to her husband Nick Lachey since 2011 – but before they exchanged vows, the actress revealed that the couple secretly split.
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The NCIS: Hawaii star opened up about how she and Nick went their separate ways during the last season of Netflix's Ultimatum: Marry or Move On – which she co-hosts with Nick – telling the show's contestants about their past relationship woes.
WATCH: The Ultimatum: Marry Or Move On official trailer
Vanessa admitted that she and Nick only realized they wanted to get married after they dated other people during their temporary split. The 41-year-old confessed that she never thought she would "give a man an ultimatum" but felt forced to do so in 2009.
She explained: "We dated for five years. So, I finally said, 'What are we doing?' I had moved in with him, I had renovated his entire bachelor pad, there was a bar in the pool, I was like, 'Whatever you want', and now I'm like, 'OK I want to put kids in the pool.'"
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She continued: "If I'm being completely candid and transparent, we took a break. We both saw one other person and we realized that if we got out of our own way, we could be amazing together.
"But it took me seeing somebody else and me realizing I don't mind the things that bugged me or were holding me back. I don't mind all that, the bigger picture is how I feel about that person and their values of wanting to be with me and knowing everything about me."
© Photo: NetflixVanessa and Nick host The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On
"I think we got perspective," Nick added.
The couple met in 2006, shortly after Nick's public divorce from Jessica Simpson, when Vanessa starred in his What's Left Of Me music video.
Vanessa also admitted that she and Nick were only able to fully "commit" to their own relationship when they both "let go" of his divorce.
© Photo: InstagramVanessa and Nick share three children
"He was literally in a very public marriage and a very public divorce, and I had to go through all that [expletive] very publicly and it was very hard for us," she said.
"It wasn't until the moment that he was like, 'I'm gonna let it go,' and I said, 'I'm gonna let it go,' and we truly committed to each other.'"
The couple went on to marry in 2011 and now share sons Camden John, ten, and Phoenix Robert, five, as well as daughter Brooklyn Elisabeth, seven.
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