The X- Factor judge made the announcement via her publicist’s Twitter page. It stated that “Cheryl Cole is separating from her husband Ashley Cole. Cheryl asks the media to respect her privacy during this difficult time.”

Their three and half year marriage had been rocked by a series of allegations that Ashley had cheated on the singer. Recently he had been accused of sending sex texts and allegedly sleeping with a string of women. Over the weekend reports appeared in newspapers claiming an American local government worker, Ann Corbitt, had had sex with Cole in a hotel during Chelsea’s pre-season tour in Seattle last July.

Cheryl arrived back in the UK on Tuesday after jetting out to LA after the Brit awards. A few hours later and the confirmation of the split was released.

Over the weekend it had been reported that Cheryl had dumped Ashley via text message. The Sun had claimed she had sent the Chelsea star a message saying “Move out. It’s over.”

On Monday she was pictured being comforted by US dancer Derek Hough, 24, whom she met when she recorded her album 3 Words

William Hill closed the book on whether the Cole’s would divorce on Sunday claiming that “The revelations keep coming and sometimes there is no point in Fighting for this love and we think Cheryl has thrown the towel in”.

However, speculation is now mounting over the Girl’s Aloud star will do next.

William Hill are offering 10/1 that Cheryl’s next husband will be a Premiership footballer but they are offering 3/1 that she will get back together with Ashley before Christmas. William Hill also reckon Cheryl will leave the UK for the states, she is now evens from 4/1 to be a judge on the American X Factor.

“The odds suggest that there is a great chance that Cheryl will go stateside to the US X Factor!” said Hill’s spokesman Rupert Adams.

Meanwhile, Boylesports are taking bets on what profession her next boyfriend will be – they’re offering odds of 7/4 that he will be a dancer.

Her decision was severely criticised by reputably unpleasant judge Jason Gardiner, who called her a “spoilt brat” and branded her rejection of Torvill and Dean’s routine a “disgrace”. This is, however, the same judge who compared one of Davies’ previous routines to “faecal matter” and spurred an investigation by TV watchdog Ofcom into whether he had breached acceptable standards with his remarks.

Having competed in the skate off with Davies, Emily Atack is leading the odds on the next celebrity to be eliminated in spite of achieving her highest score so far in Sunday night’s show after getting a little advice from superstar Alexandra Burke, performing to her single Bad Boys. It was called her best routine by the judges and they consider her to be improving; however, with odds of 13/8 on her being the next to leave from BetFred, it may be that she just hasn’t climbed quickly enough to the standard required.

However, Danny Young received a lower score than Atack from the judges on Sunday, although he was not in the skate off, perhaps saved by his cheeky attitude which judge Emma Bunton was pleased to see returning. He was criticised for being too slow and not stringing the elements of his routine together smoothly enough. Bookies BlueSQ and 888Sport offer the same odds for Young as for Atack, at 6/4.

Public opinion has been steadfastly in Cheryl’s favour, condemning Ashley for his promiscuous behaviour. Cheryl Cole is, after all, considered one of the most attractive women in the world; she is the favourite to win the title of FHM Sexiest Woman of the Year 2010 with odds from Paddy Power at 1/3. Megan Fox is second at 7/4; in spite of her poor acting, suggested by her haul of Razzie nominations, it seems the male population appreciate her other assets.

It seems the general opinion that Cheryl could do much better than Ashley, in any case, and with his looming fine from Chelsea, for purportedly bringing women back to the team hotel room on at least three occasions, his future is looking decidedly unstable. It’s taken Cheryl this long to take some decisive action. There is even a Facebook fan-page titled “Ashley Cole, are you stupid?! Can’t you SEE how hot your wife is?!”

BoyleSports are even offering odds on what the job of Cheryl’s next boyfriend will be. The odds of another footballer are at 7/1, with any sportsman other than a footballer slightly more favourable at 6/1. The most likely occupation is a dancer, with odds of 7/4, perhaps spurred by Cheryl’s appearance with Derek Hough in LA. Whoever she chooses, the odds of him being better than Ashley Cole are considerably high.

The final show on Friday will be broadcast live, which is remarkable for a modern day soap opera. It will be in this live broadcast that the villain will finally be unmasked. At the moment there is only a few people in the world who knows the answer and one of those is the show’s producer Diederick Santer and he is not telling anybody except to say that there have been three big clues. These were in the episode broadcast on Christmas Day, another a little later and another that is very revealing but he has refused to say when it happened.

Of course there have been many red herrings too. In order to keep the secret a number of alternative versions of the episode are in rehearsal and none of the cast or crew will know what version will be used for the final broadcast until just before it is about to go out. With Paddy Power you can bet during the course of this live episode. Currently the favourite is Ryan Malloy at 4/1, no doubt to avenge the way Archie treated Janine Butcher. Second favourite is Sean Slater at 9/2 followed by Stacey Slater at 6/1, Ben Mitchell at 8/1, Ronnie Mitchell at 8/1 and Bradley at 10/1, but if you want to take an outside chance, then Dot Branning is available at 100/1. Hint: We have reviewed the murder episode and believe it was carried out by somebody with long blonde hair…