In the UK Need advice Wife asked to separate

[NDY]

Oh dear, the ILYBINILWY speech. I got that one as well. In fact you can't throw a stone 10 feet in these forums without hitting 5 people that have heard that, including me. Those exact words and it usually means there is someone else in the picture. You say

Neither of us have played away

Are you sure? Read Sandi2's threads on the WW. An EA is just as devastating as a PA, real or imagined. In my case, my ExW didn't think she was having an A because all they did was kiss her OM.

she feels I have been controlling her and that I was not the best father to our children put myself in front of the family with work and my hobbies.

That's script mate. Remember IT'S ALWAYS THE LBS's FAULT. Believe nothing of what they say and only 50% of what they do. You could have been the best dad/husband in the world and you still could have ended up here. Thing is there will be grains of truth in what she says but her perspective is all screwed up. Example, my ExW told me at BD that I never did anything, I never spent time with S10 blah blah blah. Just the other week in an email she expressed how we did such a good job of bringing him up. See what's going on there?

I see the next stage is selling our house neither of us could afford to stay and pay for everything alone.

As Cadet famously says 'Sometimes doing nothing is doing something'. You don't need to put your house on the market right now. You have a bit to go before that.