Laura Hilven, Leandro Trossard’s wife since 2019, confirmed on May 13 that they had separated. The statement went up on Instagram, four short paragraphs, and it was the first time either of them had said anything publicly about the marriage ending. By then, most of the visible record of it was already gone. The wedding photos, years of holiday pictures, and a shot of the two of them on the Emirates pitch had all come down from her account, without any explanation attached.
Table of Contents
The Weeks Before Hilven Said Anything
The account had already been changing for months. Hilven stopped appearing in photos wearing her wedding ring sometime after December 2025, something only noticed in hindsight, once people went back through her posts looking for when things had shifted. Then, in the weeks before the statement, nearly everything tying her to Trossard came down: the wedding day, the 2018 engagement post, a trip to Wimbledon from the summer before, years of matchday photos from the Emirates. An account built up over a decade had been stripped back to almost nothing.
The Sun reported the deletions first, in early May, citing a source close to the couple who said anyone scrolling through Hilven’s account now would find no clue that she and Trossard had ever been together, let alone married. Goal.com and Yahoo Sports followed within days, treating it as an open question rather than a confirmed split.
Hilven closed that question herself on May 13, posting her statement to Instagram. Belgian outlets, including Het Laatste Nieuws, had the news the same day. Goal.com, Yahoo Sports, and the rest of the English coverage followed on May 14.
This was not a choice made lightly, she wrote, adding that the two of them had already been living apart for some time before saying anything in public. She asked for privacy for their two children and signed off with just her first name.
Eleven Years, Barely Documented
This was not the first time in their relationship that a personal milestone landed in the same month as a career turn. Hilven and Trossard met in 2014, when he was still playing for KRC Genk in Belgium. They married in June 2019, the same month Trossard signed with Brighton and the couple relocated to England. Their first son, Thiago, had already been born by then, in April 2017. Their second, Amadeo, arrived in January 2023, the same month Trossard completed his ยฃ27 million transfer to Arsenal.
Hilven, who like Trossard is Belgian, has never given an interview about the marriage or her husband’s career. What exists publicly instead is a handful of specific, dated moments, caught by other people’s cameras rather than posted from her own account: two photographs from Euro 2024, credited to Getty photographer Ian MacNicol, at Belgium’s group match against Romania in Cologne on June 22, and the round of 16 loss to France in Dรผsseldorf on July 1. A separate photograph places her with Trossard at Wimbledon in July 2025. Across eleven years next to a professional footballer, that is close to the entire documented public record, three photographs, taken by someone else.
Ten Weeks Later, Trossard Left Too
It happened a third time. Trossard completed a permanent transfer to Besiktas in mid-July, for a reported ยฃ15 million, closing out three and a half years at Arsenal during which he won the club’s first Premier League title in more than two decades and started every one of Belgium’s matches at this summer’s World Cup before Spain eliminated them in the quarterfinal on July 10. The transfer coverage does not mention Hilven or their two sons.
Her Instagram account is still there. Still 146 posts, the same number it was before any of this became news, with the follower count creeping past 37,000 since May and nothing new posted to explain it. Whatever happens next for either of them, most coverage of her, this piece included, still reaches her through his name first.
