Little Mix's Leigh-Anne Pinnock Says Long-Distance Relationship with Husband Andre Gray Has 'Been Hell': 'So Hard'

Singer Leigh-Anne Pinnock is opening up about the difficulties that come with being in a long-distance relationship.

The Little Mix star married husband Andre Gray last June after seven years of dating. But because he’s a professional soccer player, his job often keeps him far from home.

“We have a long-distance relationship. He lives in Saudi [Arabia], he plays football there,” Pinnock, 32, said on the Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware podcast. “So for the last two years, we’ve been apart basically, seeing each other for like, maybe two days a month. It’s been hell, to be honest.”

Gray, 32, is currently a striker for the Saudi Pro League club Al-Riyadh, which he joined last fall after a brief stint playing in Greece. Prior to the move, he played for a number of England-based EFL Championship teams, including Watford and Burnley.

Pinnock, who shares 2½-year-old twins with Gray, said she “really” tries not to resent her husband for being away, as she knows “he’s doing it for us,” but finds the situation “so hard.”

The “Don’t Say Love” singer noted that Gray’s contract is set to end this summer, and that he’ll finally return home next week.

“I’m so excited. We don’t know [what’s next],” she said. “That’s also the thing about being a footballer, you just don’t know where you’re going to be, and I can’t move with him anywhere, because obviously I can’t have a career wherever he’s gonna go. I have to be, obviously, local to home… I can’t do it anymore. I can’t do it.”

Pinnock and Gray first met at a club in Marbella, Spain — and though she wasn’t looking for love, knew instantly that he was the one.

“It was weird because as soon as I saw him, I just knew,” she said. “I didn’t care that he was a footballer… I think when you know, you know.”

Pinnock and Gray welcomed their twins in August 2021, and the couple has not publicly shared the toddlers’ names or sexes.

Pinnock is set to release her new EP No Hard Feelings on Friday, May 31.