AnneKee Molenaar describes divorce from De Ligt as 'open-heart surgery' after eight-year relationship ends

AnneKee Molenaar, the former partner of Manchester United defender Matthijs de Ligt, has opened up about the end of their relationship, saying the experience felt like “open-heart surgery” and describing the period leading up to their planned wedding as “hell”.

De Ligt, 25, legally married Molenaar one week before Euro 2024 began in June 2024, a day after featuring for the Netherlands in a friendly against Canada. The couple had planned a wedding party in Italy for the following summer, but that celebration never took place. Instead, they ended their eight-year relationship, with De Ligt now dating Dutch model Amber Yuusef, whose relationship he confirmed in June.

Molenaar spoke publicly about the breakup for the first time on the debut episode of a YouTube interview series titled Guncle, hosted by Robbert Rodenburg. “It has been a tough year, a year with a lot of change, but also a year for which I am very grateful,” she said.

Addressing the obvious question of how a marriage could dissolve so quickly, Molenaar was candid. “We have had a very nice time all these years, and yet last year we came to the conclusion that it is no longer there in the romantic way,” she said. “I have the feeling that people think: how can you get married and divorce a year later? But I don’t regret anything. I think it’s very important to keep it to myself, and I really wanted it to work.”

She also pushed back against speculation that something specific had triggered the collapse of the relationship. “I understand that people think: something must have happened there. I hate to say it, but that’s really just not the case,” she said, adding that the separation was ultimately an act of mutual respect. “There is a lot of love between Matthijs and me. I think the most loving thing we have done is say: ‘You are going this way, and I am going that way.’”

Describing the emotional aftermath, Molenaar said: “That is really just a process of mourning. It’s an abrupt change, and you’re missing something, and you’re sad about that. I really experienced it as something physical — just physical pain. As if I had open-heart surgery and someone was blowing against my heart. That’s how fragile and vulnerable I felt.”

Molenaar said she has only recently begun dating again. De Ligt, for his part, addressed the public attention surrounding his new relationship with Yuusef earlier this year, asking for privacy and denying the authenticity of screenshots that had circulated online suggesting Yuusef was motivated by his fame and wealth. “Normally I never feel the need to respond, but I do this time,” he said. “In this day and age, we know that anything can be faked, and that is the case with this screenshot as well.”