OTTAWA - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday that he and his wife of 18 years, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, are separating.

In a post on Instagram, the prime minister said "that after many meaningful and difficult conversations, we have made the decision to separate."

A statement from his office added that the couple has signed "a legal separation agreement."

It said the public can expect to continue seeing them and their three children together as "they remain a close family" and both parents will be a "constant presence in their children's lives."

They asked for privacy ahead of a family vacation scheduled for next week.

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Trudeau and his wife, a former entertainment reporter, were childhood friends and reconnected in 2003 while co-hosting a charity ball. They soon started dating and married in 2005 in Montreal.

They have three children together: Xavier, 15, Ella Grace, 14, and nine-year-old Hadrien.

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The separation is the first for a Canadian prime minister since Trudeau's late father Pierre Trudeau, who split from Margaret Trudeau and eventually divorced in 1984 during his final months in office.

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