Susanna Reid on why she still lives in a house with her former partner, despite the fact they ended their relationship a year ago

'I'm privileged to have a great relationship with my ex, to the point where we can live together comfortably and he can have a new relationship.'

Susanna Reid has opened up for the first time about he breast cancer scare, writing in her column for The Sun (Getty Images)

Given the choice, many of us would rather walk over hot coals than be within spitting distance of an ex-partner.

But less than a year after Susanna Reid’s very public break-up with the father of her three children, and she couldn’t be happier – even though they are still living under the same roof and he has a new girlfriend.

The Good Morning Britain presenter is currently in the process of a “good divorce” ̶ a sort of less esoteric version of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s “Conscious Uncoupling” that involves respectfully living “separately but together” in the same abode.

“We still get on so well, Dom is still such a hands-on dad and we really co-parent,” she told Fabulous magazine.

“So we live separately but together and happily in the same house. I'm not saying everybody can do it and I definitely think people are surprised that we can do it this way.

“But it's nice for the children that they know mum and dad are still there. I'm privileged to have a great relationship with my ex, to the point where we can live together comfortably and he can have a new relationship.”

Her “absolute priority”, she says, is to ensure her former partner of 16 years is still around to help her bring up their children.

The pair were never married, but she insists she is “trying to have as good a ‘divorce’ as possible”.

“But I do understand... It might seem unusual,” she added.

News that the pair had separated emerged in equally unusual circumstances in February, when it was discovered that Cotton had set up a dating profile.

“We'd already split up, so he was entitled to start meeting new people,” she said on the reports.

“There have been feelings hurt along the way, obviously, but Dom and I had a takeaway together last night, a good chat and he's a great friend of mine.

“You don't throw 16 years away.”