Sources close to celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain exclusively tell Page Six that he and his younger wife, Ottavia Busia — who trains as an uberbuff MMA fighter — have separated.
But while friends say they’ve been apart for some time, Busia explained the relationship’s a bit more complex.
A source close to Bourdain says: “They’ve been separated for a while,” but “there was no one else involved.”
A decade ago, their “first date was to a cigar bar; their second was to [NYC restaurant] Masa. A few dates later, they had matching tattoos (of a chef’s knife) put on their shoulders. And after a few more dates, they married,” a 2012 profile said.
They’ve also been photographed getting matching snake tattoos in Miami.
But since their wilder days, Bourdain’s gone on to become famous and Busia’s become a toned jiu-jitsu fighting machine who trains at Renzo Gracie Academy on West 30th Street in Manhattan and reportedly doesn’t drink or smoke.
A rep for Bourdain, 60, had no comment when asked about the separation. Busia, 38, told us via email, “Because of professional decisions we both have made, my husband and I have been for years in an unconventional relationship. Nothing has changed. We love each other. We respect the decisions the other has made. And we’ll always consider ourselves a family.”
Bourdain travels the world for his shows like “Parts Unknown,” and Busia has said, “The holidays are the only times when he’s home.”
Either way, they remain close: Last week, she posted a picture congratulating Bourdain on a Creative Arts Emmy win, and wrote in Lena Dunham’s “Lenny Letter,” “My husband half-jokes that he married Sophia Loren but ended up with Jean-Claude Van Damme.”
As far as dating goes, Bourdain said at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival: “When I was single, I’d take people to eat sushi on the first date … if they didn’t eat the uni [sea urchin], there was really no chance at a relationship.”