The wife of runaway maths teacher Jeremy Forrest has launched divorce proceedings against him, his sister said today.
Carrie Hanspaul said: "Divorce proceedings are going through, which she initiated."
Hanspaul also insisted Forrest was not a paedophile despite his child sex conviction.
It has been reported that Emily Forrest was trying to decide if she wants to salvage her marriage after the 30-year-old was jailed for five-and-a-half years for child abduction and five charges of sexual activity with a child.
Forrest, who fled to France with the girl when she was 15, received the jail sentence at Lewes Crown Court last Friday.
Hanspaul told ITV's Daybreak programme that Forrest and his wife had a "very difficult relationship".
She said: "None of us has spoken to her since they left for Bordeaux. Divorce proceedings are going through, which she initiated."
Forrest reportedly wants to marry the schoolgirl
Hanspaul said her brother still loved the girl with whom he went to France, who was in court on the day of the verdict and obviously still loved him.
Asked if her family would go to their wedding if the couple stayed together and got married, Ms Hanspaul said:
"Obviously, if they have managed to survive all of this, and he stays in there all that time, she will be 21, he will be 35, that then would become, if you like, a normal relationship, and yeah, obviously, we would support them, if that's what they chose to do."
She denied that her brother is a paedophile, as he has been portrayed.
She said: "I think it's the wrong word. She is 15, she's not 11.
"She's under-age, but the general definition of a paedophile is somebody who is interested in pre-pubescent girls, generally under the age of 11, so I think it's wrong that that's what he's being branded."