After a messy divorce from Rob Sussman in 2005, the actress and talk show host, 48, didn’t expect to fall in love again. “He’s everything to me,” she told People in 2011. The couple got engaged in August of 2011 and eloped on April 8 the following year in an intimate outdoor wedding that was secret, secluded and, “something just for us,” said Lake. Though Lake — who is mother two sons Milo and Owen — considered a large wedding, she and Evans opted for something more personal. After two-and-a-half years of marriage, Lake separated from Evans on Oct. 9, 2014 and filed for divorce a week later, according to court filings in Los Angeles. On Tuesday, Lake revealed in an emotional Instagram and Facebook post that her ex-husband had passed away after a battle with bipolar disorder. “It is with a heavy heart that I share that my beloved soulmate, Christian Evans has passed,” Lake, 48, said in a Tuesday Instagram post of the former couple during happier times. “The world didn’t understand this man, but I did. He succumbed to his life long struggle with bipolar disorder.” 
 
 “For anyone who has ever lost a family member or friend to mental illness, my heart goes out to you. “I am a greater person for having known him and spent the past 6 and a half years of my life with him,” she continued. “He was a man of love and what mends my broken heart today is knowing that he is finally at peace and his spirit is free.” 
 
 Evans was a jewelry designer and met Lake in the summer of 2010.
– "The world didn't understand this man, but I did." That heartbreaking statement appeared on Ricki Lake's Instagram feed on Tuesday in which she announced the death of ex-husband Christian Evans, who Page Six reported died after struggling with mental illness. The 48-year-old former talk-show host, who called Evans her "beloved soulmate" in her post, eloped with Evans in April 2012 and split with him in October 2014 due to irreconcilable differences, Us Weekly reports. But despite the end of their marriage, Lake's love for Evans persisted. She noted in her Instagram message that Evans had long battled bipolar disorder and said she was a "greater person for having known him." "What mends my heart today is knowing he is finally at peace and his spirit is free," she wrote, adding, "Rest in peace, my love." People looks back on their love story. (Lake was once in the news for promoting home births.)