Trinny bounces back with a confident smile and daughter by her side after painful split from husband

She may have cut a sombre figure just a few days ago following a miserable divorce from her husband of nine years - but Trinny Woodall was all smiles last night at the opening of exclusive children's clothing store Marie-Chantal in London.

The TV fashion queen emerged a different woman as she held four-year-old daughter Lyla by her side at the launch of Greek royal family member Marie-Chantal's store in Sloane Street, Kensington.

Trinny looked calm and collected as she stepped out in another trademark classic black hat, and braved the cooler temperatures with a khaki-coloured quilted jacket.

New woman: Trinny braves the public eye with her daughter Lyla at the launch of children's clothing store Marie-Chantal in London

But she was upstaged by her cute daughter who was wearing a gorgeous pink dress and hooded soft-white cardigan for the children's fashion event.

It was not long ago that Trinny, 44, officially announced her divorce from businessman Johnny Elichaoff, 48, following a string of arguments about her increasing work load.

Despite months of marriage counselling, the couple decided to call it a day for the sake of their daughter Lyla, and Elichaoff's son Zak.

Trinny and the children will continue to live in the couple's £2 million property in London's fashionable Notting Hill, while Elichaoff plans to move out in a few weeks.

Trinny appears much more relaxed despite having officially split from her husband a day ago

Rumours of their troubled marriage have been rife since June with Trinny becoming increasingly prone to arriving at fashion events without her wedding ring.

Two months ago, she was linked to Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves who Trinny was introduced to through a mutual friend British artist Amanda Eliasch.

Sources close to the glamorous presenter said she flew to Los Angeles for a holiday and had hoped to meet the actor during her trip.

‘Trinny met Keanu through a friend in London and they really clicked,’ says a source.

‘Trinny was desperate to meet him again in LA.

But earlier... both Trinny Woodall and Johnny Elichaoff looked miserable following the announcement of their divorce

She asked Amanda to throw a welcome dinner for her and the plan was for Keanu to come along to the party last weekend, but he didn’t show. Trinny was really disappointed because she was hoping they could catch up.’

During her marriage, Trinny - who rose to stardom with Susannah Constantine in shows like the BBC's What Not To Wear and ITV's Trinny And Susannah Undress -
suffered two miscarriages and had nine IVF attempts before their daughter was born.

Two years ago, Elichaoff ended up in a California rehabilitation clinic to beat a dependence on prescription painkillers. He became hooked on them following 20 operations after a motorbike crash.

Trinny has also been through rehab for alcoholism from which she suffered from her late teens until she was 26 and still attends Alcoholics Anonymous.

Trinny and husband can't hide their misery after divorce announcement

TV fashion guru Trinny Woodall and her husband cut miserable figures today following the announcement of their divorce.

Woodall, 44, split from businessman Johnny Elichaoff, 48, after a string of arguments about her burgeoning work load.

The couple first started having relationship difficulties four months ago and have been to marriage guidance counselling in a bid to put their troubles behind them.
But despite desperate efforts, they have now called it a day.

Trinny Woodall and Johnny Elichaoff both stepped out without their wedding rings on the day it was revealed their nine-year marriage has come to an end

Woodall will continue to live in the couple's £2 million property in London's fashionable Notting Hill with their four-year-old daughter Lyla and Elichaoff's son Zak.

Elichaoff, who is planning to move out within weeks, cut a sombre figure as he left home today. His day went from bad to worse when, out and about in his wife's pink Mini Cooper, he received a parking ticket.

A spokesman for Woodall told the Mail last night: 'We can confirm that the couple have sadly decided to separate. For the sake of their children, they ask that their privacy is respected at this time'.

Penalty: Elichaoff returned to his wife's pink car to find a parking ticket

In recent months, Trinny has been prone to arrive at fashion events without her wedding ring and rumours of troubles in the marriage have been rife since the early summer.

In May, the Mail was told by Trinny's representatives at there were no problems in the marriage. However, just weeks later, it was reported that cracks were forming in relationship.

Close friends say that the relationship has been struggling for months under the weight of recovering alcoholic Trinny's heavy work commitments.

Spilt: Trinny and her billionaire husband have decided to end their marriage

It's been very tearful and painful for them,' said a friend of the couple. 'It was taking longer and longer to make up after their arguments and eventually they took an inevitable toll.

'They've always been enormously committed and tried hard to overcome differences. But ultimately they couldn't. It's a raw and emotional time and they're being supported by friends and family. Their main priority is the children's welfare.

'They have both had problems in the past which are well documented. But the marriage difficulties have nothing to do with lifestyle issues. It is about two people not getting on as well as they did. There is absolutely no one else involved.'

Trinny - who rose to stardom with Susannah Constantine in shows like the BBC's What Not To Wear and ITV's Trinny And Susannah Undress - has told how she and entrepreneur Johnny have weathered storms in their relationship in the past.

Trinny out in London on a motorbike taxi yesterday - the day it was revealed she is getting a divorce

'You have to keep talking to each other. Johnny and I had to deal with a difficult stage. But we now have a "business meeting" where we talk about our issues.,' she said.

During their marriage Trinny suffered two miscarriages and had nine IVF attempts before their daughter was born.

Two years ago, Elichaoff ended up in a California rehabilitation clinic to beat a dependence on prescription painkillers. He became hooked on them following 20 operations after a motorbike crash.

Trinny has also been through rehab for alcoholism from which she suffered from her late teens until she was 26 and still attends Alcoholics Anonymous.

Sartorial queens: Trinny with her fashion partner Susannah Constantine

Trinny Woodall dashing young man holding hands

Style guru Trinny Woodall stepped out last night with a surprise accessory on her arm - a handsome young man.

The Undress The Nation presenter raised eyebrows as she left a fundraiser held by Gordon Ramsay at London's Hanover Square with her well-dressed companion in tow.

Hand in hand: Trinny Woodall left a fundraiser in London last night with a handsome companion

There was no sign of Trinny's husband Johnny Elichaoff and her diamond wedding ring was conspicuously absent, replaced instead by a huge turquoise jewel.

The 44-year-old's private life has been the subject of persistent speculation in recent months.

No wedding ring: Trinny's diamond band was replaced by a huge jewel

There have been fears that her nine-year marriage to the entrepreneur has hit trouble, fuelled by the occasional disappearance on her wedding band.

The couple, who have a four-year-old daughter Lyla and a son Zak from Elichaoff's previous relationship, have endured marital problems before.

Two years ago Johnny went into rehab to tackle an addiction to painkillers.

Trinny has also spent time in rehab to battle alcoholism and still regularly attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Woodall is known to have a ferocious work ethic which is said to have contributed to the couple's difficulties.

A representative declined to comment on Woodall's marital status and would only say: 'She was out last night with very old friends, that's all we know'.

Trinny gets to grips with Susannah's wobbly bits as the uninhibited pair continue their tour

The last time the pair were on stage Trinny Woodall flashed her underwear at the audience.

But this time her co-host Susannah Constantine went a step further and showed off her bottom.

The self-proclaimed style gurus performed the revealing demonstration while promoting their magic knickers in Dublin.

What not to reveal: Susannah shows off her bottom while demonstrating the effectiveness of control pants

Trinny grabs Susannah's wobbly bits during a demonstration for their magic knickers in Dublin

Trinny grabbed at her pal’s bulging stomach before Susannah whipped off her tights and pulled on the slimming underwear on the final day of the Undress The Nation tour.

Last week the uninhibited television presenters both flashed their underwear during a guest appearance.

Susannah pulls on the control parts as Trinny looks on

They then turned their attention to crowd, assessing the effectiveness of audience member's underwear with their usual trademark frankness.

The pair were taking part in a four-day fashion and beauty festival called Style In The City

Trinny and the trouble with Johnny Too Bad

When Trinny Woodall arrived at an exclusive showbusiness party last week, she was wearing her customary pout and steadfast steely glare.

Pushing through swathes of paparazzi she carried a well practised air of hauteur, refusing to acknowledge anyone who enquired as to her wellbeing.

Nothing unexpected about that, you might think. The television presenter is, after all, a staple presence on the capital’s party circuit, used to being subjected to the glare of the media and certainly not a woman to crumple in the face of rigorous speculation about her private life.

Is it all over? Trinny posing with Johnny

Yet for all her attempts at normality, the past seven days have been traumatic for Trinny.

Growing doubts about her marriage to former rock drummer turned financial adviser Johnny Elichaoff last week crystallised as full-blown reports that the two had split.

The pair have held a series of crisis meetings in a desperate bid to salvage their nine-year marriage. They face, it seems, an uphill struggle.

For The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the chasm between them has deepened to such an extent that it is all but unbridgeable – caused by a toxic combination of his deep-seated jealousy, her unwavering ambition and the drastically different ways they cope with the addictions that continue to blight both their lives.

Trinny, 44, has fought a well documented battle with alcoholism. She has not had a drink for 16 years, and attributes her abstinence to religiously attending her local branch of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Trinny posing at the Sex And The City world premiere

Her 49-year-old husband, meanwhile, is dealing with a dependence on prescription painkillers, for which he was treated two years ago. But Johnny is, his friends fear, throwing his wife into despair.

As one well placed source explains: "Trinny is totally into recovery and the process of recovering. She feels let down that Johnny can’t make the same inroads."

Also the source says after all her problems, Trinny hates to be near drinkers.

"She won’t set foot in a pub, but Johnny will, so they have been living almost separate lives, which has taken its toll on their marriage.

"She is channelling her addictive personality into furthering her career, while Johnny is more laid-back and thinks that there’s more to life than work, work, work."

Trinny, of course, fronted the BBC’s hugely successful fashion makeover show What Not To Wear from 2001 to 2005 with her best friend and business partner Susannah Constantine.

The pair – in a move that is, with hindsight, bitterly ironic – went on to host a marriage "counselling" show, Trinny & Susannah Undress, on ITV in 2006.

This month they stripped off in their show The Great British Body, also on ITV.

Both women boast privileged backgrounds. Trinny’s grandfather was the head of British Steel, Sir John Duncanson, and Susannah’s father was ex-Eton and Coldstream Guards.

They first met at a dinner party hosted by Susannah’s former boyfriend Viscount Linley in 1994 and wrote a newspaper fashion column together before landing their television contracts.

Their frank advice and no-holds-barred criticism attracted more than seven million viewers and their accompanying fashion books have sold in excess of 2.5million copies.

Revealing all: Trinny and Susannah on The Great British Body

Coupled with lucrative advertising contracts, the two women have become a bestselling brand, among the wealthiest and most successful celebrities in Britain.

But that is not enough for Trinny, who gave birth to Johnny’s daughter, Lyla, in 2003.

"Trinny wants to conquer America," adds the source.

"She’s proud of what she’s achieved and always wants more, while Susannah, like Johnny, is far more laid-back. Johnny’s not interested in a lot of the things Trinny’s obsessed with and sees her celebrity lifestyle as increasingly superficial.

"He’s bored when she’s off doing her own thing and he feels stuck out on a limb. She feels let down. She says that she can’t be both adults in their relationship."

It is fair to say that the tables have turned somewhat for the couple, who own a £2.2million terraced townhouse in West London, where there was no sign of either of them last week.

Back in 1982, it was Johnny who commanded the limelight, as a madcap rock drummer who toured the world supporting U2 and Siouxsie Sioux.

Nicknamed Johnny Too Bad, he played in a Seventies band called Stark Naked And The Car Thieves before defecting to the equally bizarrely named Baby And The Black Spots and then playing in guitarist Robert Fripp’s League Of Gentlemen.

His musical career was interrupted by a two-year spell in the Army in 1984, and he went on to help manage rock bands Tears For Fears and Fairground Attraction.

It was a long way from the rather dry world of taxes and insurance that he inhabits nowadays.

Many wonder if, deep down, he still hankers after being a performer as he watches his glamorous wife command centre stage.

Trinny was still on the cusp of stardom when they met, and reeling from her traumatic childhood, teens and drink-soaked 20s.

The youngest of six siblings, she is the daughter of a wealthy banker and was dispatched to boarding school at the age of six.

It was an institution she recalls as "cruel" and "sadistic", not least for the time she was forced to stand naked in the school corridor as a punishment for her involvement in a water fight.

By her early teens she suffered from severe acne. "It was hideous," she says.

"It affected my self-worth, everything. It was the bane of my life. I grew my hair long just so I could cover my face."

She was not prescribed effective medication until she was 29, so she self-medicated with alcohol instead, drinking in an attempt to numb her embarrassment.

"I did everything," she admits. "It became a real problem. I would drink and go mad."

Working as a secretary, she spiralled out of control, living beyond her means and racking up £26,000 of credit-card debts in her early 20s until, at 26, she hit rock-bottom.

"I’d had enough [of drinking]," she remembers. "I felt so low. There was an exact moment when I just knew I didn’t want to do it any more. I was out with two very good friends of mine, who are now dead. They both died of alcoholism.

"It was about 3am and I thought, 'I don’t want to do this. I have to stop.' I’d felt that before, a hundred times, but I woke up the next morning and I still didn’t want to do it. And that was the first time in ten years I’d had that strength of feeling."

She spent a year in rehab. "I never want to go back to where I was," she says. "A lot of people do go back, so I still feel a day at a time."

Being married to a fellow addict may in some ways provide a source of support. But it is also, it seems, antagonising Trinny’s honourable intentions.

Johnny – who has a son, Zak, from his first marriage – developed an addiction to prescription painkillers two years ago when he had 20 operations after breaking his leg in a motorbike accident.

He was treated in a Californian rehab clinic in October 2006, during which time Trinny caused concern by collapsing in the aisle on a flight from New York to London.

She dismissed the incident, claiming she had simply had an allergic reaction to a sleeping pill.

Some close to the couple, however, feared otherwise. "Part of the reason for her collapse was that she had recently spoken to Johnny," says a confidante. "She was worried about his addiction."

Tellingly, it had only been a month earlier that Trinny insinuated they were suffering strains in their marriage.

She admitted: "Johnny and I had to deal with a difficult stage. We have a 'business meeting' where we talk about our issues. It works for us. You have to keep talking to each other."

Theirs is certainly a bond that has weathered a number of storms, perhaps the worst being Trinny’s struggle to become pregnant.

Susannah – married to Danish entrepreneur Sten Bertelsen and the mother of their three children – fell into motherhood effortlessly.

But Trinny was diagnosed with blocked fallopian tubes and endured nine rounds of IVF and two miscarriages before she conceived.

She said at the time: "It is stressful having IVF. I’m a hormonal cow for a month, but luckily my husband is very patient."

When she finally became pregnant she spoke glowingly of Johnny. "I still feel a sexy woman, which is important," she said.

"Some husbands are very funny about their wives when they’re pregnant and go off them sexually, but my husband never puts me down. I’ll say, 'I hate my thick legs,' and he’ll say, 'Trinny, you can cover them – and your t*** look fab.' He always makes me feel great."

She added poignantly: "I probably won’t have another. I’ve tried to have another baby. I would love Lyla to have a sibling near her own age, but what will be will be."

However, those close to the couple say the situation has now changed and that it is Johnny who is pushing to become a father again.

"In spite of all their problems conceiving in the past, he is keen for another child," says one source. "He thinks it would help ground Trinny but her response is very much 'not now'."

Indeed, her social schedule is such that another baby would struggle for space in her life.

When she is not performing sartorial overhauls she is entrenched in a glamorous whirl of charity fundraising as a trustee of the Chemical Dependency Centre and a staunch supporter of the Lavender Trust at Breast Cancer Care.

Counting Elton John, Mick Jagger and Liz Hurley among her many friends, she is undoubtedly well connected.

"She really admires Liz and sees how her husband Arun lavishes diamonds and exotic holidays on her," says the source.

"She sometimes wants that a bit for herself but isn’t married to somebody who gives her that.

"She’s the one everybody recognises at parties and he’s pushed out of the way by people trying to get to her. He feels emasculated."

There is also the prickly issue of Trinny’s appearance. A self-confessed Botox user, she has shocked viewers in the past with her scrawny figure, but insists that, at 5ft 7in and a steady nine stone, she eats heartily.

Yet although not suffering from an eating disorder, she is evidently fanatical about her health and beauty regime.

"She is on a desperate quest to stay youthful and trim and she’s often in bed early in the evening as a result," says a source.

"Johnny finds that over the top and superficial."

For all her workaholic tendencies and neuroticism – fellow contestant Piers Morgan labelled Trinny a "banshee" after her spectacularly bossy behaviour on BBC’s Celebrity Apprentice last year – Johnny has always been her most ardent supporter.

He said of his wife before their most recent troubles: "Trinny comes across as cold and aloof, but in fact she is the kindest woman I have ever met. She has a heart of gold. The steeliness people see in her is really a cover for her chronic shyness, believe me."

There is no doubting Johnny and Trinny’s earnest desire to make their marriage work.

But their shared experience of addiction – and the toll that it takes whatever its form – is both a blessing and a curse. Addiction is selfish and so, sometimes, is the determination to sustain a recovery.

Ambition, too, can be an unforgiving quality, especially if it is not shared in equal measure by a spouse.

Last week, Trinny was once again wearing her wedding ring, something she has been neglecting to do in recent times.

Is this a sign of a desire for reconciliation with the man who, for all their troubles, she so clearly adores?

How long the ring will stay there is anybody’s guess.