Thomas Tuchel told Chelsea reporters in July 2021 that his wife had just moved their family from Paris to London and had handled the logistics herself. “My wife took care of the house move so I didn’t get in the way too much,” he said. He had started at Chelsea in January of that year. She arrived with the children in August. Eight months after that press conference, she filed for divorce.
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Who Is Sissi Tuchel?
Sissi Tuchel is a former German journalist who was married to England head coach Thomas Tuchel from 2009 to 2022. She worked at Sรผddeutsche Zeitung, one of Germany’s most widely read and respected daily newspapers, before giving up that career to follow her husband through four managerial posts across Europe. The couple have two daughters, both now teenagers, who live with Sissi in Germany.
Since the split became public in April 2022, she has given no interviews and has no publicly verified social media presence. Most of what is on record about her comes from coverage surrounding Thomas’s career and from financial proceedings at Munich’s District Court in 2023 that drew her briefly into public view.
The Career She Had Before the Relocations
Sissi worked at Sรผddeutsche Zeitung in Munich before the demands of a football manager’s schedule made that impossible. Founded in 1945, the paper sits among Germany’s most authoritative broadsheets, roughly comparable in standing to The Times in the UK. Reporting from the period identifies her specifically as a sports journalist there, which is relevant to what later came out during the Munich court proceedings.
She did not leave journalism in one moment. Each city they moved to made returning a little less practical than the one before. By January 2021, when Thomas was appointed Chelsea manager, she was already being described in press reports as a “former journalist.” She had been out of the profession for years.
Mainz, Dortmund, Paris, London: Thirteen Years on the Move
From the time Thomas joined Mainz 05 as head coach in 2009, the family’s address changed with his career.
| Period | City | Club |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 to 2014 | Mainz | Mainz 05 |
| 2015 to 2017 | Dortmund | Borussia Dortmund |
| 2018 to 2020 | Paris | Paris Saint-Germain |
| 2021 to 2022 | London | Chelsea |
Before Thomas was even publicly named as PSG’s manager in 2018, Sissi had reportedly already traveled to Paris to find an apartment for the family. Surrey Live, drawing on reporting from that period, described her as “apparently integral to Tuchel’s life in terms of logistics and his career.” She organized each move: the apartments, the schools, the practical realities of arriving in a city where nobody was expecting her.
Thomas confirmed this pattern himself. When his family followed him from Paris to London in August 2021, seven months after he had taken the Chelsea post, he credited her with having handled everything. He, by his own account, stayed out of the way.
The Night of the Dortmund Bus Bombing
On April 11, 2017, Borussia Dortmund’s team bus was struck by three nail bombs as it traveled toward Signal Iduna Park for a Champions League quarter-final against Monaco. Defender Marc Bartra was injured and taken to hospital. The match was postponed by 24 hours.
Sissi was already inside the stadium when the attack happened.
Thomas sent her a text: everything is OK, don’t worry. He came home late that night. She and his agent were there when he arrived.
“They were quite freaked out. I came home a little bit like a robot.”
Thomas Tuchel, speaking to The Daily Telegraph
The message had not explained what had actually happened outside the ground. He sat down and watched Barcelona against Juventus on television.
Sergej Wenergold, the bomber, had been trying to profit from a fall in Borussia Dortmund’s share price. He was convicted in 2019 of 28 counts of attempted murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Porto, May 2021
Chelsea beat Manchester City 1-0 at the Estadio do Dragรฃo on May 29, 2021, to win the Champions League. After the final whistle, Sissi ran across the pitch and, according to the Mail on Sunday, leaped into Thomas’s arms. Both daughters came onto the pitch with their father.
Thomas had been Chelsea manager for barely four months at that point. Sissi and the children were still based in Paris at the time, but she had traveled to be there for the final.
Speaking to UEFA in the weeks that followed, Thomas said: “Sometimes your family also makes sacrifices. For sure my family did.”
The family relocated to Cobham, Surrey, in August 2021. The divorce papers were filed the following March.
The Thomas and Sissi Tuchel Divorce: What the Court Found
Sissi filed for divorce in late March 2022, nine days before England changed its divorce law to remove the requirement for fault. Under the legislation still in force when she filed, one party had to be found responsible for the breakdown.
Mr Justice Mostyn of the Family Division of England’s High Court handled the case. His written order found that Thomas had behaved in such a way that Sissi could not reasonably be expected to remain in the marriage, and that it had broken down irretrievably. Sissi was the petitioner. The grounds were unreasonable behavior.
A multi-million-pound financial settlement was expected to follow. The decree absolute, which formally ends a marriage under English law, was anticipated within six weeks of the judge’s ruling.
The Mail on Sunday, which broke the story in April 2022, quoted a source close to both parties: “Sissi and Thomas have tried to avoid splitting but in the end there was no other way. It is very sad and now it is all about making sure their daughters are the top priority.”
What Came Out at the Munich Court Hearing
In March 2023, financial proceedings connected to the divorce were heard at Munich’s District Court. Sissi attended. Thomas did not.
German newspaper Bild reported that Sissi had received a phone call from England after Thomas was dismissed by Chelsea in September 2022. She had been told the real reasons behind the sacking and had written them down in an email. That email came up during the Munich proceedings.
Bild reported that the email stated Chelsea’s players had lost respect for Thomas as manager, and that additional, unspecified off-field reasons had contributed to the decision to dismiss him. Thomas applied for a temporary injunction to stop Sissi from disclosing the email’s contents. Bild confirmed it could not publish the exact wording for legal reasons.
The presiding judge ordered the session closed to the public. In the judge’s words, the closure was necessary because “the highly personal area of life is touched on and the truthfulness of the statements is also disputed.” Thomas’s legal team was challenging her account. The full contents of that email have not been published.
Where Is Sissi Tuchel Now?
Since the divorce, Sissi has been living in Germany with her two daughters. She has given no public interviews and has no publicly verified social media presence.
When Thomas was appointed England manager in October 2024, he told journalists he wanted to “be close to my family and my children in Germany,” and the Football Association gave him the flexibility to travel regularly between London and Germany. He has been with Natalie Guerreiro Max, a Brazilian businesswoman and director at consulting firm Natexo, since mid-2022. She has two children of her own. As of May 2026, they remain together.
Thomas Tuchel named England’s World Cup squad on May 22, 2026, at a live event at Wembley Stadium, with the tournament in North America beginning next month. England qualified with a perfect record. He heads into the competition with a contract running to 2028.
His daughters are in Germany. The woman who organized four relocations, was inside Signal Iduna Park on the night of the bus bombing, and ran across the pitch in Porto when he lifted the Champions League trophy, is raising them there.
His side of those thirteen years is fully documented. Hers barely features in any of it.
