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Regi (45) is Sergio Herman’s travel companion in this week Across the border on VTM. The two go to the Basque Country. During the culinary road trip, the Limburg DJ tells, among other things, about his failed marriage to Elke Vanelderen (43). He admits that there was another love at play: that of music.
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A year ago, Regi Penxten and Elke Vanelderen announced that they were ending their nine-year marriage. The ex-couple has two children together, Ellie Martha (8) and Renée (5).
In the third episode of Across the border the DJ tells Sergio Herman where things went wrong. “She puts it beautifully,” he says about his ex. “I had too much love for music. That is true, and then the children come in and she felt more and more pushed back. I know what it is, but it’s not easy to solve.”
It has been an eventful year for Regi, he says. “Since my life has been turned upside down, I often wake up at night. And then the mill starts spinning. It’s all a lot and then you also have children and a family. But there’s no other way: you can’t do this halfway. You can’t be at the top at 30%, it just won’t work. And then, unfortunately, a lot has to make way for that, do it anyway!” it sounds candid.
In the third episode of Across the border Sergio Herman and his traveling companion are going to catch barnacles, a delicacy in northern Spain. According to 72-year-old diver Miguel, the animal is good for potency. He says he still does it two or three times a week. “Weekly?! For me, that’s a year!”, Regi laughs. When the duo has to descend a ladder into a deep cave in search of blue cheese, his laughter quickly fades. Regi suffers from ladder fear. You will see how he is doing on Tuesday evening.
A failure
In an interview with our newspaper last October, Penxten already spoke about his breakup. “Actually, the processing has yet to start for me, because as long as Elke lives here, everything will more or less remain the same. In my head it seems as if there is still nothing wrong, but of course that does not correspond with reality. You know, things just didn’t work out between us, so there was no point in prolonging this needlessly. That is of course a failure, certainly from my point of view. Because my parents are also divorced and I always said I would do better. Not so.”
He also talked about the cost of his love for music. “I’ve talked about it with musicians before. As a child you dreamed of a career in music. You then do everything for that and when you come to the big crossroads in your life, you choose the music again. How could that be? It’s almost as idiotic as playing football: why all the hassle of getting a ball between two posts? And yet millions of people have been bitten by that game. I do it to hang those gold records on the wall here. That in itself is ridiculous, but it is that passion that drives me.”
ALSO READ. Regi’s peaks and valleys: “I want to remain a good father after my divorce”
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