Where did it all go wrong? Inside Daniel MacPherson and Zoe Ventoura’s shock split

Actors Daniel MacPherson and Zoë Ventoura announced their shock split on Sunday, after five years of marriage.

So, where did it all go wrong between the lovebirds? 

Having shied away from the public for more than seven months, the once-happy couple announced they had mutually decided to separate in a dual upload this week.

They were last pictured out-and-about together in Sydney on April 22 with their then four-month-old son, Austin.

That same week, on April 26, Zoë shared the last photo of the couple together before their split announcement almost eight months later.

While the post appeared joyous and complimentary of her husband, a hidden detail may have hinted at the trouble to come.

‘I spent yesterday trying to make his day excellent IRL, but here ‘tis: My love is 40!! We are so proud of everything you do and everything you are. Happiest of happy birthdays, enjoy that hydralyte I just gave you,’ Zoë wrote at the time.

However, Daniel didn’t appear to ‘like’ the post and his ‘likes’ became few and far between after the post was made.

In May, Zoë shared a photo of her ‘cute husband’ which he liked, but no new photos of the couple were shared by Dan on his account.

On Sunday, in almost identically worded Instagram posts, the pair finally revealed they had mutually decided to separate.

Alongside a photo of the pair with their backs turned to the camera at sunset, Daniel, 40, wrote: ‘With the greatest respect for each other, Zoë and I have separated.

‘Together, we will continue wholeheartedly to raise our beautiful boy Austin. He is, and will forever be, our greatest priority. 

‘We ask for your respect and will be making no further comment.’ 

Zoe, 39, posted the same photo and caption on Sunday, changing only the first line to read: ‘With the greatest respect for each other, Dan and I have separated.’ 

The couple share a son, Austin Xavier, now one, who they welcomed in December last year. 

They have proven to be notoriously private about their only child, keeping him out of the public eye, as well as keeping the pregnancy and birth a secret. 

The actors recently marked Austin’s first birthday with a photo concealing his face as he played with blocks.  

Earlier this year, Daniel revealed how he had to make the difficult decision to leave his pregnant wife to work in Ireland shortly before she gave birth due to a job offer.

Speaking on the Samantha Gash Podcast, the actor said he landed a major role in a yet-to-be-announced project and was lucky his wife is so supportive.  

‘That was even a harder conversation to have,’ Dan explained. 

‘This is sort of a tricky topic because I’m on hiatus on a job that has not yet been announced and it is a big job. It’s a massive job for a massive company and I’m alongside an incredible cast.’

He added that Home and Away star Zoe took the news well. 

‘When I rang up and said ”Hey I think I might have got this job”, having told her that I was going to take at least three months off to come home and recover from seven months away and be there as a husband and as a new father and having absolutely no idea what that was going to take.’

But he said the pair just ‘made it work.’

‘Thankfully I have someone in my life who understands the way I think and is open to that and it’s all working out,’ he added.

Prior to the birth of their son, Daniel split his time between Australia and Los Angeles, referring to the pair as ‘entertainment gypsies’.  

Former Neighbours star Dan married Zoe in an intimate ceremony in Noosa, Queensland in 2015. 

Dan and Zoe tied the knot in in front of close friends and family in the sleepy Queensland town. 

Because of their busy schedules, the couple had struggled to find time for their wedding.

‘We’ve gotta work out where but we’ve literally been entertainment gypsies for 12 months – I’ve been living out of suitcases for nearly ten months,’ Daniel told The Project in May 2015.  

In 2017, Daniel admitted the first year of his marriage with Zoe was ‘challenging’ as the pair of actors are so often travelling for work.  

‘The first year of marriage was challenging for us in a lot of ways exactly because of the travel,’ Daniel said in a candid interview in WHO magazine.

The former soap star however explained that the pair have become good at coping with spending time apart. 

‘We’re just really good at it. We can operate independently,’ he revealed, adding that the pair have a policy where they can demand that ‘times up’ and ‘hop on a plane’ back to one another. 

Daniel is best known for his role as Joel Samuels in the soap opera Neighbours, which he appeared on between 1998 and 2002. 

He then perused a career overseas, landing roles in the UK series The Bill and the US series Bad Mothers. 

Zoe stars on Home and Away as Alex Neilson, and is also well known for her roles in Packed to the Rafters, Underbelly Files: Chopper and will next appear in Doctor Doctor in 2021. 

The couple first met on the set of TV series Wild Boys in 2011, and became engaged over Christmas 2014 after four years together. 

They walked down the aisle just months later in November 2015, before welcoming their son Austin in December 2019.