Chesney Hawkes has shared the secret to his successful 28-year marriage

He told the Guardian newspaper: "Our secret? Spending time away from each other. It's true that absence makes the heart grow fonder.

"But there are many other secrets. Communication is crucial: we don't hide anything from each other."

Chesney also revealed he knew he wanted to marry Kristina on the night they first met after she asked him for a pint of lager.

He explained: "It was pretty instant when I met Krissy. She was 20, I was 22. She walked into a pub in Mortlake, London, near where I lived, to celebrate 4 July - she's American.

"I asked if I could buy her a drink. She said: 'I'll have a pint of lager'. In my head I thought: 'Marry me'."

The couple has been living in Los Angeles for more than a decade but they recently moved back to Chesney's native UK and they now live in the area where he grew up - and he's admitted he's grateful to be back.

He added: "I'm happy to be home. I've been living in the desert of LA for the past 12 years, but we're now in leafy Surrey, near where I grew up.

"Life has come full circle. I used to do a paper round nearby."

It comes after the musician admitted he blew his entire fortune in his early days of fame.

Chesney Hawkes made £8.2 million from his 1991 hit single 'The One And Only', taken from the movie 'Buddy's Song' - which he starred in alongside The Who's Roger Daltrey, Sharon Duce, and Michael Elphick - but he splurged it all on a "crazy" lifestyle.

Speaking on the 'My Dirty Laundry' podcast, he said: "I did that classic thing when I first made it of just blowing everything. I bought a state of the art studio. I bought everyone in my family a car. So yeah, we had fun.

"My brother Jodie is my drummer and he was with me through the whole time. And yeah, we enjoyed it, because we were young. We were 19 and 17, and we toured all over the world - America, Japan, it was an amazing time.

"It was like living in the eye of a storm. So I had my family and the people around me in this kind of bubble, you know?

"I would be thrown into the hurricane and I'd be gone. And then I'm off to Sweden and then I'm off to New York. I never knew where I was waking up for that first year. "It was mental. It was really crazy."