Ricki-Lee reveals truth about her brief first marriage

Ricki-Lee was only 21 when she married her first husband, in a marriage that would only last a year. Now, she’s revealed what was going on.

Aussie pop star Ricki-Lee Coulter has offered some rare insight into her brief first marriage, confessing she “didn’t want” to get married but felt pressured into it.

Coulter met Gold Coast builder Jamie Babbington when she was 15 and he was 23. After a year, they started dating, and in September 2007, they married when Coulter was 21 years old.

The wedding, which came amid the first flush of Ricki-Lee’s post-Australian Idol pop success, was all over in barely more than a year. Ricki-Lee announced their separation in October 2008, citing “distance and time apart”.

Coulter revisited her memories of that early relationship yesterday on Nova’s Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel, as the trio discussed the story of a woman who felt pressured into accepting her boyfriend’s marriage proposal when deep down, she wanted to end the relationship.

“This legitimately happened to me … not with Rich obviously,” Coulter began, referring to her husband of nine years, Richard Harrison.

“I got married really young, I got married when I was 21 and I was with this guy, but it just was not a great relationship.

“I was trying to figure out ways to break up with him and I just couldn’t quite figure it out in my head. I was young, I didn’t want it, you know, but then he proposed to me in front of his whole family on a holiday in New Zealand. And I was literally, at the time, trying to figure out how to break up with him.”

Ricki-Lee and first husband, Jamie Babbington.

Speaking to the Herald Sun three years after the marriage ended, Coulter said that she was “living my dream but behind closed doors my personal life was a mess.

“I felt alone, I bottled it all up and it made things worse. I wanted to give up everything. I wouldn’t leave the house for days at a time. I’d sit in the house all day and do nothing.”

In 2009, Coulter began dating her manager Richard Harrison, and the pair eventually wed in Paris in 2015.

Shortly afterwards, she took time out from her honeymoon on the French Riviera to clear up incorrect reports that had identified Harrison as a personal trainer.

Ricki-Lee and husband Rich Harrison.

Harrison is also her longtime manager.

“There is a common misconception that has been going on for six years now … and I feel like if I don’t say something, it will continue forever. My husband Rich, is not a Personal Trainer — he is my manager. And he has been since 2010,” she wrote.

“Rich is my manager. And a great manager at that with a great reputation in this business. I’d like him to get the credit he deserves.”

Meanwhile, Coulter has been enjoying a musical comeback of late: Her recently-released fifth studio album, On My Own, marked her first album in a decade – and gave her the highest chart position of her career, debuting at number three.

She’ll perform songs from that release and throughout her career in a headlining show at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre in September, before joining Sophie Ellis-Bextor as supports for Take That’s A Day On The Green shows in November.

Originally published as Ricki-Lee reveals truth about her brief first marriage