Emeli Sande and Yoana Karemova have called quits on their relationship – three years after they got engaged.
Emeli Sande and her fiancee Yoana Karemova have split.
The former couple – who announced their engagement in September 2022 – separated in the summer of 2025.
Singer Emeli – who said in November 2023 she had to put her wedding plans on hold due to her busy work schedule – told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “Sadly, we decided to separate in the summer.”
The Read All About It Hitmaker, 38, and classical pianist Yoana remain pals.
Emeli – who is working on her sixth album – added: “We both care very much for each other but needed to focus our time and energy on our music careers.”
In March 2022, the Next to Me singer declared that Yoana was “the one for life”.
Emeli – who fell for the musician when she learnt about classical music – told Metro: “We met through music. And I definitely feel happier than ever. “It feels great. For me, true love and having love in your life makes everything fit into place.”
When asked if this means she is bisexual, Emeli replied: “I’m not sure what I identify as, but I guess so. I just feel like I should fall in love with whoever I fall in love with.”
The following month, Emeli said she wished to had come out sooner, but when the star did, it felt as if a weight had come off her shoulders.
Speaking at a National Student Pride event, Emeli said: “I wish I would maybe have done this sooner.
“Even in the interview, as soon as I said ‘I’m in love with Yoana’, he was like ‘So what does that make you?’ and I hadn’t really thought about it, I was just enjoying being in love.
“I just feel that I can fall in love with anybody at any time, and right now I’m in love with Yoana, and that’s it for life.”
Emeli continued: “It’s all new, as in like being out and being proud, that’s new to me, but I’ve always felt that I never have rules of who I fall in love with, and I’ve always felt so much support from the community.
“So it’s not something that feels like my life has changed that much. It’s just who knows about it and being open, that’s the main part.”
Before Yoana – who collaborated with Emeli on songs July 25 and My Pleasure, which featured on Emeli’s 2022 album, Let’s Say for Instance – the four-time Brit Award-winner was married to her childhood sweetheart, marine biologist Adam Gouraguine.
Emeli and Adam – who met as teenagers and started dating in 2004 during her gap year before she enrolled in a medicine course at Glasgow University – got engaged in January 2012.
Weeks after the star – who quit university three years into her five-year degree to pursue music – performed at the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, she and Adam secretly jetted to his native Montenegro, and got married.
But a year after their intimate September 2012 wedding, they announced their divorce in 2014.
Emeli Sande splits from Yoana Karemova
