VANCOUVER: Canadian pop diva Sarah McLachlan has separated from her Indian-origin husband and band drummer Ashwin Sood.
Forty-year-old McLachlan, who has sold more than 40 albums worldwide, married 41-year-old Sood 11 years ago.
Birmingham-born Sood, who grew in the Canadian city of Calgary, had met McLachlan in the early 1990s while the two were touring with the famous Canadian folk duo Lava-Hay.
After years of courtship, the couple got married in 1997 - the year McLachlan's fourth album "Surfacing" sold eight million copies and won four Grammys.
The Vancouver-based couple has two daughters - six-year-old India and 14-month-old Taja.
Currently, the pop diva is away on holiday in Hawaii with her two daughters.
McLachlan, who is set to release her new album next month, told Billboard.com that she was splitting from her husband.
She said she is sharing her grief with fans in two new songs - "U want me 2" and "Don't give up on us" - which appear on her upcoming album "Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan".
McLachlan added: "I wasn't planning on saying anything, but it's gonna come out at some point. I haven't said anything about it because I've been terrified to, but I figure ... there's no good time to say it, so I just said it."
She was quoted as calling her marital situation "pretty gross", without giving any reason for the split.
An accomplished drummer, Sood is also a known player of percussion, loops and keyboards.
His cousins - Veena Sood and Manoj Sood - are well known Indian-Canadian actors who can be seen on the on-going hit comedy "Little Mosque of the Prairies".
