Sarah Vine has opened up about the personal trauma she suffered as a result of Brexit.
The Daily Mail columnist said the UK’s split with the European Union cost her her “dearest friendships and my marriage”, adding that she was relieved it is now over following Rishi Sunak’s Windsor agreement.
She also enclosed how she let her close friend David Cameron down at the time of the referendum by not disclosing which way her then-husband, Michael Gove, would campaign.
“I should have told him sooner that Michael was going to campaign for Leave. Perhaps if he had known from the start, it wouldn’t have felt like such a betrayal to him and Samantha.
“But for me it was a question of loyalty to my friends or loyalty to my husband, a horrible choice which I am relieved — and sad — I will never have to make again”, she said.
Captioning the pain Brexit has caused her over the past six years, Vine says it was an “intensely personal and painful issue” for her and many other whose own families have been deeply divided by this issue – “and in some cases even torn apart like mine”.
She said, for some people, if Sunak’s plan succeeds, there is every chance that some of these rifts may finally begin to heal.
“For me, sadly, it’s too late. I think it runs too deep. The best I can really hope for is, like I said earlier, closure. I was too close to it all, burnt too badly. Ultimately, Brexit cost me not only some of my dearest friendships, but also my marriage.”
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