THEY wrote every song together on the album they released last year, including songs called 'Til Death Do Us Part' and 'Adam & Eve'. But after eight years of marriage, the king and queen of Australian country music, Shane Nicholson and Kasey Chambers, have announced they have separated, with the collision of work and family life said to have forced their split. Musical rivals as much as partners over the course of their careers, the couple have both competed against each other for ARIA and APRA awards and collaborated on crtically acclaimed records such as 'Rattlin Bones', which was a #1 platinum hit in 2008. But it was with their most recent release, 'Wreck & Ruin', that cracks begin to show in the relationship, with Chambers admitting they were struggling to find a balance between touring and managing their two children, son Arlon and daughter Poet. "We don't always manage it that well to be honest and like any married couple we have our moments," Chambers said last year. The problems are not the creative side but more on tour going from hotel to hotel with the kids, at sound checks and on planes. It's a lot of together. In a statement on their website this week, the pair, who live on the Central Coast, confirmed they had separated and had been "living apart for sometime." The singers first met in 2002 when they were brought together by Chamber's brother Nash to do a duet called Designed To Fade. They staged an impromptu wedding right before Christmas in 2005 in the backyard of their Avoca home. Both the bride and groom were barefoot and in jeans and t-shirts, threw a BBQ and had a pavlova for the wedding cake. "I can't explain how happy we are," Chambers wrote on her website at the time. It really was my dream wedding.