Seal and Heidi Klum
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Seal has been very candid about the demise of his marriage to Heidi Klum – and now he's defending his decision to speak so openly about the subject."When you publicize your marriage as much as our marriage was publicized, when you renew wedding vows, when you do all those things, what you are saying to people is ... you're giving people a picture of an ideal relationship that people aspire to," the singer said on the Fifi and Jules radio show in Australia, where he's working on that country's version of The Voice and performing his "Soul 2" tour.
Seal, who turned 49 last weekend, says that he felt an obligation to give the public a window into why his marriage ended because he and Klum had been so open about their relationship in happier times.
"When it goes south, you can't all of a sudden take the philosophy of a monk and decide to go for a vow of silence. It doesn?t really work like that," he said. "I respect my wife's decision not to talk about that, but I felt that people at least deserved some kind of explanation why the picture of the ideal wasn't what they thought it was."
Plus, the timing of the split happened to coincide with his professional obligations, he added. His appearances on talk shows like The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Piers Morgan Tonight were already scheduled three months in advance because of the release of his new album.
"It's not like this [split] happened and I decided the next week to go on the show," Seal said.
Still, through this difficult time, the singer said his family has remained his priority. "I've tried my very best to protect the general welfare of my family, my wife included."