Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond and his wife split after eight years of marriage

The pair made millions from a home loan service, and own one of the most desired houses in the country.

John Symond, founder of home loan and mortgage broker service Aussie Home Loans, has

announced he and his wife Amber McDonald are ending their eight-year marriage.

The pair began their relationship 12 years ago, and a friend of the couple told the Saturday Telegraph their separation was simply to start new chapters in their lives, after the two had grown apart.

The couple in 2022 fundraiser for the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation. Picture: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

“We enter this new chapter of our lives with a deep, mutual respect and friendship for each other,” they said in a joint statement to the newspaper. “We are united in our love and commitment to our family.”

Despite the separation, the family still intends to spend Christmas and New Year’s with one another.

The couple earlier into their marriage. Picture: Supplied

When the pair first met, the multi-millionaire said he asked Ms McDonald out “over a dozen times” over the course of their business lunches, before she agreed on a date.

“It took me several months to actually get her to go out with me,” he told the Herald Sun. “She played very hard to get. I used to ask her out all the time.”

The couple live in Mr Symond’s home in Sydney’s Point Piper, which was put up for sale in 2016. It was withdrawn in 2017 after talk of it selling for over $100 million.

It is now rumoured to be worth $200 million, which would be the first house in Australia to sell for such a price.

John Symond at his home, considered one of the most desired houses in the country. Picture: Supplied

After Mr Symond left his role as executive chair at Aussie Home Loans in 2020, his nephew James Symond remained as CEO until a 2021 merger with online home loan company Lendi.

Ms McDonald is the creative director of fashion label Common Hours, and hosted a runway in a Potts Point property she purchased for $12.5 million.

Ms McDonald is the daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Paul Keating, and share children with his son Patrick.