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Sources close to celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain exclusively tell Page Six that he and his younger wife, Ottavia Busia — who trains as an uberbuff MMA fighter — have separated.

But while friends say they’ve been apart for some time, Busia explained the relationship’s a bit more complex.

A source close to Bourdain says: “They’ve been separated for a while,” but “there was no one else involved.”

A decade ago, their “first date was to a cigar bar; their second was to [NYC restaurant] Masa. A few dates later, they had matching tattoos (of a chef’s knife) put on their shoulders. And after a few more dates, they married,” a 2012 profile said.

They’ve also been photographed getting matching snake tattoos in Miami.

Huge congrats to @anthonybourdain and the whole @zpzproduction crew for once again winning an Emmy for Outstanding Informational Series or Special last night!!! A photo posted by ottaviabourdain (@ottaviabourdain) on Sep 12, 2016 at 6:39am PDT

But since their wilder days, Bourdain’s gone on to become famous and Busia’s become a toned jiu-jitsu fighting machine who trains at Renzo Gracie Academy on West 30th Street in Manhattan and reportedly doesn’t drink or smoke.

A rep for Bourdain, 60, had no comment when asked about the separation. Busia, 38, told us via email, “Because of professional decisions we both have made, my husband and I have been for years in an unconventional relationship. Nothing has changed. We love each other. We respect the decisions the other has made. And we’ll always consider ourselves a family.”

Bourdain travels the world for his shows like “Parts Unknown,” and Busia has said, “The holidays are the only times when he’s home.”

Either way, they remain close: Last week, she posted a picture congratulating Bourdain on a Creative Arts Emmy win, and wrote in Lena Dunham’s “Lenny Letter,” “My husband half-jokes that he married Sophia Loren but ended up with Jean-Claude Van Damme.”

As far as dating goes, Bourdain said at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival: “When I was single, I’d take people to eat sushi on the first date … if they didn’t eat the uni [sea urchin], there was really no chance at a relationship.”