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Sum 41's Deryck Whibley and Avril Lavigne have been broken up for quite some time now, but Whibley is opening up about his former marriage and more in his new memoir Walking Disaster: My Life Through Heaven and Hell.
As per a passage from the memoir published by PEOPLE, Whibley explains in his book that while there was "no single moment or situation" that "caused things to turn," he and Avril were not on the same page, and even describes them as "living separate lives" until he was inspired by a Tom Petty song to give Lavigne a marriage ultimatum. He recalled, "Avril and I kept living separate lives until I couldn’t take it anymore." He added, "Motivated by the lyrics of Tom Petty’s 'I Need to Know,' I decided to confront our problems and gave her an ultimatum: We had to fix what was broken or I was moving on."
When Avril finally returned home for a short period of time after traveling to promote her album, Deryck shared is feelings with his then-wife and ultimately, they decided to party ways. He explained, "When she was finally at home for a few days, I laid it all out for her," adding, "'We have to go back to the respectful loving relationship that we had, or we need to just call it quits,'" I said. 'This isn’t working and I can’t live like this anymore.' Avril told me her decision. There was no crying. There was no big fight. There wasn’t even much of a discussion. It was just over."
Whibley and Lavigne were married for three years before they announced their breakup in 2009.