Imran and Jemima End Marriage

It was a longer innings than some predicted, but after nine years it came to an end yesterday when Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricket captain turned politician, announced that his marriage to Jemima Goldsmith, the socialite and heiress, was finally over.

"I sadly announce that Jemima and I are divorced," Mr Khan said in a statement released by his political party, Movement for Justice (Tehrik-e-Insaaf).

"Whilst Jemima tried her best to settle here, my political life made it difficult for her to adapt to life in Pakistan," the statement added.

The announcement brings to an end a union that was Pakistan's very own version of Posh and Becks and, for a while at least, looked as though it might help propel Mr Khan towards the pinnacle of Pakistani politics.

Jemima was 21 and Imran 42 when they married in Richmond, south-west London, in 1995.

She was the socialite daughter of Sir James Goldsmith, the billionaire financier and founder of the Referendum party. He was the playboy cricketer trying to turn his standing as a national hero in Pakistan into political capital.

The bride converted to Islam soon after the wedding, changing her name to Jamila Haiqa, and the couple had two sons, Sulaiman and Kasim.

Meanwhile Mr Khan's political career, launched mainly out of disgust with the rampant corruption of the last elected government, appeared to be on the rise.

Although his party initially drew its support from the pious middle classes of Lahore, his wife was seen as an asset and was welcomed into the Pashtun clans of the North-West Frontier Province, next to Afghanistan. On the campaign trail in 1997, she wowed the crowds with her Urdu as well as attempting a few words in the local Pashtu language.

The marriage was controversial in Pakistan to the extent that some political opponents raised the Jewish roots of Ms Khan's late father, but that criticism quickly dissipated when it was revealed that she had embraced Islam and followed her husband in fundraising for Afghan refugees.

She became a Unicef special representative, and launched Jemima Khan Designs, a charity fashion label which drew on aspects of traditional Pakistani dress.

But gradually life in Pakistan appears to have become more difficult. Two years ago the fashion label closed, with Ms Khan blaming the effect of the September 11 attacks on the Pakistani economy, while her husband's political career also appears to have hit the buffers.

Although now eight years old, his party has had a greater impact with the press than in the Pakistani national assembly. The former cricketing legend is the only elected member of the Tehrik-e-Insaaf, winning the western Punjab seat of Mianwali two years ago.

He has fiercely criticised the Pakistani army's battles with Pashtun tribesmen suspected of harbouring al-Qaida militants. This has won support along religious groups but has irritated some parts of the army establishment.

In the run-up to last year's elections, after urging women to vote - in perfect Urdu - at a rally in Peshawar, Ms Khan was falsely accused of having studied under the "blasphemer" Salman Rushdie.

Protesters torched posters with her picture on them and demanded her expulsion from Pakistan. She also faced accusations of being a Zionist conspirator, despite having written articles in support of the Palestinian cause, including one for this newspaper.

There were other security scares. In July 2003 a balaclava-clad man, possibly armed with a knife, broke into her Fulham home. She hid in the bathroom while a bodyguard fought off the intruder. She has always believed the break-in was politically motivated.

It emerged in December that she had left Pakistan to base herself full-time in London to study for a masters degree, while her husband was to remain at the family home in Lahore.

That set Pakistan's political and social circles whispering, so much so that, in the famously ill-advised style of Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere, Jemima placed an advertisement in the country's national newspapers in an attempt to quell the gossip.

In it she denied that the couple were "having difficulties" and insisted she would soon be returning to him in Pakistan: "Both Imran and I have become accustomed to these spiteful rumours.

"However that does not make them less hurtful for those around us and in particular our family."

Seven months on, and the rumours don't look quite so spiteful after all.