Heidi Klum and Seal's Split Shocks Friends 
 
 PeopleTV Archive: Heidi & Seal Take You Underneath the Sheets 
 
 Since tying the knot in 2005, Heidi Klum and Seal have never been shy about putting their love on display , whether hamming for the cameras in Aspen or renewing their vows every year at lavish theme parties So when the singer, 48, and the fashion icon, 38, broke the news with PEOPLE on Sunday that they're separating, friends were caught off guard."All this is just shocking to me," says Niche Media founder Jason Binn, a friend of Klum's for more than 20 years. "I've only seen them as the most loving couple.""The Heidi and Seal I knew was the couple everyone loves," says a fashion industry source who's worked with Klum, "super passionate and in love."Sources who've witnessed Seal and Klum's typically overt shows of affection – "They were always all over each other, practically groping," says another fashion source, "totally in love" – are now left wondering what could have gone wrong for the pair, whose children are Leni, 7½, Henry, 6, Johan, 5, and Lou, 2."It has to be something major," says a Klum friend. "They have four kids together, and they've always been very committed to making it work." ||||| Talk about savage irony: on the heels of his separation from wife Heidi Klum, Seal released his new album, "Soul 2," in the U.S. on Tuesday -- one that he says has a particularly romantic feel. And so when the Grammy Award winner appeared at several studios on Monday to promote his latest album, the question of his split from his supermodel wife of seven years naturally came up. Here's what Seal said: 
 
 On how he's dealing with post-split life, at the "Tavis Smiley" show on PBS, airing Friday: 
 
 
 
 We have a tremendous amount of love and respect for each other. Of course our children are our first priority. We've pretty much said everything we needed to say about it in the release. How does one stay focused? Just because you decide to separate, I don't think you all of a sudden stop loving each other. I don't think you all of a sudden stop becoming friends, especially when there are other things to take into consideration like family. To be honest, it's not really that difficult. It's not really that much of an issue. What one has to do in this situation is to remain civil and to retain one's dignity and to be professional and to understand we are not the only people on this planet that go through this. It is just, unfortunately, a chapter of life. 
 
 On being "shocked" and still wearing his wedding ring, at "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," airing Tuesday: 
 
 
 
 You just grow apart after a while, and you try, and you work through it, and the thing you quickly realize when you're married and when you become a parent is that you do the best you can. It makes you actually appreciate your parents a lot more. The thing that I'm most proud about this great woman who I married -- and I really do mean that from the bottom of my heart -- is that together she has given me four incredible gifts, four beautiful children. She is still, in my opinion, the most wonderful woman in the world. It's just pretty much a token of how I feel about this woman... Right now it feels really comfortable on my hand so I have no intentions of taking it off anytime soon. 
 
 Seal and Klum started dating in 2003; the couple have four children, Leni, Henry, Johan and Lou. 
 
 Check out photos of the couple from happier times below:
– Despite his very recent, very public split with wife Heidi Klum, Seal visited Ellen DeGeneres' show yesterday and had only nice things to say about his soon-to-be-ex. He's still wearing his ring because it's "a token of how I feel about this woman," he says in a clip obtained by the Huffington Post. "We have eight years, eight wonderful years together. And just because we have decided to separate doesn't necessarily mean that you take off your ring and you're no longer connected to that person. We will be connected in many ways for the rest of our lives." He has "no intention of taking it off any time soon," he adds. If you were shocked by news of the split, you're not alone: Even their friends were surprised, People reports. The couple renewed their wedding vows every year, and multiple sources recall their infamous PDAs: Says one fashion source, "They were always all over each other, practically groping." Another friend says that "something major" must have caused the split. Whatever it was, it caused Seal to start looking for a new place to live weeks ago, sources tell the New York Post. Click to watch more from Seal's Ellen appearance, which airs today.