They were once Scotland’s premier power couple, ruling over a formidable party machine with unquestioned authority.
Nicola Sturgeon ascended to the highest political office in the land and was First Minister for almost a decade.
Her husband Peter Murrell helped to engineer a string of election victories as SNP chief executive over a period of more than 20 years.
The unravelling of their 15-year marriage brings to an end an extraordinary partnership – but perhaps the greatest surprise is that it endured for so long.
In the days when Ms Sturgeon could expect a rock-star welcome when she addressed activists, and membership was in rude health, few dared to publicly question the Sturgeon-Murrell axis.
But there was always uneasiness among their critics over the notion of a married couple being at the helm of the entire party apparatus, politically and organisationally.
Mr Murrell enjoyed almost no public profile apart from the odd mention on his wife’s social media feed where he was portrayed as something of a put-upon homebody, cooking for his wife while she read novels – or arguing with her over decorating the Christmas tree.
That relative anonymity evaporated during the fallout from the Alex Salmond affair, when the former First Minister – Ms Sturgeon’s erstwhile mentor – was accused of sexual harassment, triggering a botched internal probe.
Mr Salmond took the government he once led to court to challenge the investigation and won – costing taxpayers more than £500,000.
He was then brought to trial in 2020 on a series of sex charges including attempted rape, and acquitted, but he and his backers believed that the allegations were the result of a conspiracy led by supporters of Ms Sturgeon – something she fiercely denied.
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell on their wedding day in 2010
Ms Sturgeon, pictured with Mr Murrell in 2017, previously denied her marriage was on the rocks amid the strain of the police investigation into the SNP’s finances
Their friendship was destroyed – and the party was plunged into civil war.
When he was a Nationalist MP, former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill called for Mr Murrell to be suspended after a copy of WhatsApp texts appeared to show him calling for pressure to be put on police investigating Mr Salmond.
Mr Murrell admitted sending them but later said he regretted the wording.
At the time, the long-running Salmond inquiry was well under way, which concluded Ms Sturgeon misled parliament about her knowledge of the claims against Mr Salmond – though another independent probe found otherwise (in a heavily redacted report).
The parliamentary probe forced Mr Murrell into public view and he was accused of being ‘obstructive’ in a surreal virtual appearance before MSPs in February 2021.
He was asked whether there was anyone else in the room with him at the time – and explained he was looking at magpies.
Mr Murrell sought to give the impression of a man who knew next to nothing about his wife’s business.
This was only a prelude, however, to the greater crisis of Operation Branchform – which put massive strain on the marriage.
It was set up by Police Scotland to look into how more than £600,000 of crowdfunding was used by the party, and led to the arrests of Mr Murrell, Ms Sturgeon and former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie.
There have been no charges for Ms Sturgeon and Mr Beattie – though inquiries are ongoing – while Mr Murrell was charged with embezzlement last year.
A police file into the allegations – spanning a seven-year period – was handed to prosecutors in May.
He is accused of embezzling party funds ‘said to have occurred’ between 2016 and 2023.
Ms Sturgeon announced her intention to quit as First Minister on February 15, 2023 – just weeks before her husband was arrested.
The couple, pictured in 2022, ruled at the top of the SNP and Scottish politics for many years before Ms Sturgeon stood down as first minister and party leader in March 2023
She insisted her resignation was a ‘coincidence of timing’.
Officers raided Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell’s Glasgow home – and the SNP’s Edinburgh HQ – days after she stepped down.
Images of a police tent outside their suburban home – as officers conducted a wide-ranging search – were screened on live television.
In a separate operation, officers took away a £110,000 camper van from outside the home of Mr Murrell’s mother in Dunfermline, Fife.
Mr Murrell quit as SNP chief executive in March 2023, after admitting he was responsible for misleading the media about plummeting party membership numbers – and acknowledging that he had become a distraction to the leadership race.
Humiliatingly, he had been set to face a vote of no confidence had he not resigned.
Mr Murrell is now rarely seen in public, while Ms Sturgeon has focused on writing her memoir and book reviews.
Meanwhile, it emerged in November last year that the SNP faces a crippling half-a-million pound financial black hole amid the worst cash crisis in its history.
The days of the unassailable Sturgeon/Murrell hegemony are now a distant memory – but the seeds of its demise were sown long ago.
