After six years of marriage, Ricky Martin and Jwan Yosef are divorcing.

“We have decided to end our marriage with love, respect and dignity for our children and honoring what we have experienced as a couple for all these wonderful years,” the Puerto Rican superstar and the Swedish-Syrian artist shared in a joint statement.

“Our greatest desire now is to continue to have a healthy family dynamic and a relationship focused on peace and friendship in order to continue raising our children together, preserving the respect and love we have for each other,” continues the former partner who shares two children. – Daughter Lucia, born in 2018, and son Renn, born in 2019. (Before that, Martin had twin sons Matteo and Valentino, born in 2008, whom he will continue to raise as a single parent.)

Martin, 51, and Yosef, 38, first connected on Instagram in 2015 and began dating six months later after meeting in person for the first time in London. They made their romance official on the red carpet at the 2016 AmFAR Inspiration Gala and announced their engagement the same year before tying the knot in 2018.

The “Livin’ La Vida Loca” singer shared the news of their union during an interview with E! News in January 2018. “I’m a husband, but we’re going to have a big party in a few months,” he told the news outlet. We exchanged vows and swore [sic] everything, and we signed all the papers we were supposed to sign, prenup and everything.”

Yosef said he also teaches his two youngest children Arabic. “The way I raise my babies is to focus on Arabic instead of English or Swedish,” she told My Kali. “I taught my daughter to count to 10 in Arabic, and she is only 2 years old, which is wonderful.”

An accomplished painter and conceptual artist, Yosef has won awards including the Threadneedle Award for Artist Exhibition in London and the Beers Contemporary Award for Emerging Art in London, both in 2013, according to Vogue Arabia. In 2020, he won the Archiproducts Design Award for a series of carpets he designed inspired by his work with adhesive tape. Earlier this year, he opened a new studio in Los Angeles.

Martin will star in the upcoming Apple TV+ period comedy Palm Royale alongside Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Allison Janney and Carol Burnett. Later this year, he will embark on The Trilogy Tour across North America with fellow artists Pitbull and Enrique Iglesias.

Both men, who speak multiple languages, spoke of their determination to pass on their linguistic flexibility to their four children.

“We speak Spanish at home, but they also speak English and French,” Martin said during a 2013 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, noting that her twin sons were enrolled in a French school. – I want them to be exposed to everything.