Brian May has opened up about the reason his marriage to Chrissie Mullen "fell apart" before the couple divorced in 1988. The legendary Queen guitarist confessed that being a touring rock star was not conducive to a stable family during his first marriage as he couldn't "adapt to normal life" when he was at home.

“It’s very hard to adapt back to normal life. I was married [to Chrissie Mullen] and I had kids and the marriage survived the whole touring life really well. It was only when I stopped touring that things fell apart, because we couldn’t adapt to living ‘a normal life’...People thought I’d defined myself in terms of being a rock star, but I defined myself as a husband and a dad, above everything else. You look in the mirror and you’re utterly surprised that you look like a whole person, because you feel like you’re not there," he said in a 1998 interview with OK magazine.

Brian and Chrissie were married for 12 years, from 1976 until 1988.  They share three children, James, 46, Louisa, 43, and Emily Ruth, 38. Asked if there was ever a question of simply going back to his wife following the split, he answered in the negative. “Yes, there was the question, but it was just not possible – mainly because I’d fallen in love with someone else [Anita Dobson].“

At the time of the interview Brian and Doctor Who star Anita had been together since 1986, and they would go on to marry in November 2000.

Although they are now together for almost 40 years Brian has admitted bandmate Freddie Mercury and his manager both had their reservations about their relationship in the early days. “A lot of people, including Freddie [said it wouldn't last]," he said. "I think he thought we were both too volatile. In fact, my manager said to me, ‘marry an actress? You must be kidding,’" he recalled.  “Well, somehow, we’re still here,” he said on an episode of Loose Women in 2015.