The moderator Thomas Gottschalk and his wife Thea have separated. The confirmed Gottschalk's lawyer Christian Schertz the news agency dpa. Previously, the "Bild" newspaper reported on it. The couple had split up some time ago, Schertz said. "We ask to respect the privacy of the Gottschalk family and to refrain from further inquiries."
Gottschalk, 68, and his wife, who is five years older, had met in 1972 in Munich - in a medicine ball, as the presenter often told. Since 1976, the two were married, they have two sons. Last July, they appeared together on the red carpet at the Bayreuth Festival.
Only in November did the Gottschalk family lose their villa in Malibu during the devastating forest fires in California. While the house burned down and Thea Gottschalk sought refuge in a hotel, Gottschalk hosted a donation gala in Germany. Since 1990, the Gottschalk family had mostly lived in the USA.
Thomas Gottschalk is one of the most famous people in the German-speaking world. He was mainly liked by his moderation of the ZDF Saturday night show "Wetten, dass ..?" (1987 to 1992 and 1994 to 2011).