It's over: Chantelle goes home to mum as Preston clears out her rubbish

A glum-looking Chantelle, wearing black jeans, a black top and carrying a gold handbag, sought refuge and a shoulder to cry on at her mother's house in Wickford, Essex, while Preston took bagfuls of what looked like Chantelle's stuff to a nearby bin.

Scroll down for more

Shortly after, a man came along and promptly retrieved the colourful bags, after which he spent some time rifling through them for booty.

The 23-year-old was seen without her wedding ring, which had belonged to Ordinary Boys singer Preston's mother, pulling up in her convertible black mini car outside her mother Vivian's home.

Just last month, the couple denied they were splitting and Chantelle said she would never take the ring off.

At the time, she said: "Preston and I are happy. I should get this wedding ring tattooed to my finger as there's no way I'm taking it off. He's my husband and we're staying together."

At the three-bedroomed house where Chantelle used to live before she found fame and love on Celebrity Big Brother, she was spotted chatting animatedly with her mum.

The couple met on the reality show last year and wed following a whirlwind romance, announced their split this week.

They said their decision to end their marriage came after "much soul-searching and tearful discussions", said a joint statement issued by the couple.

"We hope we can always remain friends and still love each other but we both think we put so much pressure on one another to make our marriage work that it has ended up destroying our relationship. No-one else is involved in our decision."

The couple insisted their relationship was genuine and denied they had rushed into marriage. Former promotions girl Chantelle Houghton and Ordinary Boys singer Preston (full name Samuel Preston), from Worthing, Sussex, met on the show in January 2006.

They announced their engagement in April and tied the knot in August. The couple sold the rights to their wedding day to a glossy magazine.

The statement said: "We know people will think we married too quickly on the back of Big Brother but the truth is that, what anyone thinks, we did have a whirlwind romance but we were genuinely in love with each other at the time and we will never regret our time together.

"We both believe in marriage and we never treated our vows or our commitment to each other lightly. We've spent hours and hours discussing whether we can salvage our marriage, give it another go, try harder, anything rather than give up.

"But we now both agree that we should go our separate ways. We are both young and we still have our lives in front of us. The last two weeks or so have been very upsetting and sad for us and our friends and family and we appreciate their support."

Chantelle Houghton was planted in the Celebrity Big Brother house as a "fake celebrity" tasked with convincing the other contestants she was famous.