Sexy sports presenter splits with ref

Fairfax Media

NO MORE: Former Black Fern Melodie Robinson has split with test rugby referee Steve Walsh Jr.

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Sexy Sky Sport presenter and former Black Fern Melodie Robinson has split with hunky test rugby referee Steve Walsh Jr.

Friends are blaming the stress of work and travel commitments for the breakup of one of New Zealand sports' most glamorous couples.

Sunday News understands the five-year relationship ended about two months ago.

Neither Steve nor Melodie would discuss the split.

"There has been a lot of rumours and it has been a stressful time," she told Sunday News last night.

"All I will say is we are keen to protect our privacy."

But a friend said Melodie and Steve's relationship had become a long-distance one and had suffered as a result.

Steve, who will referee games at the Rugby World Cup, travels around the world as one of the game's top whistle-blowers.

Melodie is increasingly on the move as a popular member of Sky Sport's television team.

The friend said the split was amicable and there would not be any kiss-and-tell stories.

"They've always kept their relationship a no-go zone.

"They've been approached by women's magazines in the past but guarded their privacy.

"Mel said they lived so much of their lives in the public eye they had to keep something for themselves. People respected that," the friend said.

Melodie is understood to have buried herself in work to get over the breakup.

She is also headed to the World Cup for Sky Sport.

"It will be hard slog but it only comes around every four years so it will be fantastic to be part of that challenge," she has said.

It is thought Walsh moved out of their home in the trendy Auckland suburb of St Mary's Bay.

The couple met when Melodie was a star Black Ferns player.

Walsh, 35, was a rugby poster boy as one of the country's youngest top refs with model good looks.

Melodie quit the Black Ferns after 18 tests and turned to journalism.

She has been a TV commentator and presenter for provincial and international rugby matches.

She is also the regular host of Friday Night Football with former All Black Ian Jones, the face of rugby for Prime TV, and a reporter on the popular show The Crowd Goes Wild.