Seal stops by the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Tuesday, January 24th to talk about his separation from Heidi Klum and why he is still wearing his wedding ring.

ON HIS SPLIT FROM HEIDI KLUM:

ELLEN:

I think it’s a very very hard thing to be in a relationship and working on a relationship and have a family and have kids and have two huge careers and a lot going on, and to be in the public eye. I think a lot of people have seen many
pictures of you and Heidi. I think it was surprise to a lot of people. That’s got to be a hard thing when people don’t really know and I think people were just shocked.

SEAL:

I think so too and you can include us in that. I think we were shocked. You go into these things with the greatest intentions when you say “I do” and you say “’til death do us part.” Those vows hold value. They are not just words. These things happen. We pretty much said how we feel and made it clear in the release statement. But, for intensive purposes of this show, you just grow apart after awhile. You try and you work through it and the thing that you quickly realize when you are married and you become a parent you do the best that you can. It makes you actually appreciate your parents a lot more. The thing that I’m most proud about this great woman who married (and I really do mean that from the bottom of my heart), is that together she has given me four incredible gifts…four beautiful children. She still, in my opinion, the most wonderful woman in the world. I think our priority was to remain civil and do this thing with dignity. We still very much love each other. It’s not a question of we were never to follow suit of some break-up or separations that you hear about, especially in our industry. It’s a shame. To say that neither of us were grieving would be an out and out lie (and I don’t mind telling you that). I think the operative here is that we are civil to each other and we both have a tremendous amount of respect and love and we try and do this with as much dignity as we possibly can. And of course, when you have four children, you hope and pray that
the rest of the world will respect that we have four children and that their little hearts are at stake too.

ON WEARING HIS WEDDING RING:

ELLEN:

That must be hard for them. I still notice you’re still wearing your ring. (Is that, it’s an interesting) It’s a beautiful ring…

SEAL:

Yes, I am still wearing my ring. I think it’s just pretty much a token of how I feel about this woman. We have eight years. Eight wonderful years together. Just because we have decided to separate doesn’t necessarily mean you take off your ring and you’re no longer connected to that person. We will be connected in many ways ‘til the rest of our lives…. though our children and also through this tremendous admiration, respect and love that we have for each other. Will we wear the ring for the rest of our lives? Who knows? But right now it feels really comfortable on my hand so I have intentions of taking it off anytime soon.

Check out the interview video below.

Photo Credit: Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.