Gov. Brian Sandoval and his wife, Kathleen, announced Friday that they plan to divorce after 27 years of marriage.

The governor, in a statement, said that the demands of public life had taken a toll on the marriage but that the two remain dedicated to their three children.

“After 27 years of marriage, Kathleen and I have decided to separate and plan to divorce. It’s no secret that the demands of public life are hard on a marriage and ours has been affected in a way neither of us had envisioned or expected,” he said in a statement to The Nevada Independent. “We both remain committed to our three children and we ask that our privacy, and the privacy of all of our family members, be respected during this difficult time.”

The two met while attending a summer school session at the University of Nevada, Reno and married in 1990, after Brian Sandoval graduated from law school. They have two adult children, James and Maddy, and one teenager, Marisa.

Kathleen Sandoval, 52, is thought to be the only Nevada first lady to hold a full-time job while her husband held office. She has worked at the Children’s Cabinet in Reno, a social services organization that aims to reduce truancy and help runaway and homeless youth, among other objectives.

In her role as first lady, she played a key behind-the-scenes role in the development of policy, advocating in 2015 for an expansion of the “Breakfast After the Bell” program that provides food for children in needy schools. She hosts an annual summit focused on children’s mental health policy, and testified at hearings in 2017 for a governor-sponsored bill that sought reforms to the juvenile justice system.

She has also been key in the governor’s push to end Nevada’s opioid epidemic, spearheading the formation of a task force in 2014 that ultimately led to the introduction and passage of an omnibus substance abuse bill the following session. That bill bolstered the state’s so-called prescription drug monitoring program and expanded access to Narcan, an opioid overdose antidote. (A second omnibus opioid bill passed in 2017 further strengthened the 2015 legislation.)

Kathleen Sandoval and the couple’s children have traveled together on some overseas trade missions and to the National Governor’s Association conference in Rhode Island this summer, where Brian Sandoval took the helm of that organization. She is the current chair of the group’s Spouses’ Leadership Committee.

The announcement comes as Sandoval prepares to enter his eighth and final year as Nevada’s governor. He was first elected in 2010.