Sarah McLauchlan and Ashwin Sood at the Grammy Awards on 2/8/04. Credit: Lee Roth / RothStock / PR Photos
Singer and mother of two Sarah McLachlan, 40, is splitting up with her husband of 11 years, Ashwin Sood, who also happens to be the drummer in her band. Sarah and Ashwin have two children together, daughters India Ann Sushil, six, and Taja Summer, one. McLachlan told Billboard that she’s going through the separation characterizing it as “pretty gross,” and said there are two new songs on her upcoming greatest hits album, due out October 7, which are about the problems in her relationship:

Sarah McLachlan not only announces that she and her husband of 11 years are splitting, but also takes the opportunity to plug two songs about the tumultuous times.

“U Want Me 2” and “Don’t Give Up on Us” both appear on her upcoming greatest hits album “Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan,” which comes out Oct. 7 via Arista Records in both a single-disc version and a two-CD deluxe package.

“I’m separating from my husband, so these are the songs about that,” McLachlan, 40, told Billboard.com.

McLachlan and her husband Ashwin Sood, who plays drums in her band, reside in Vancouver. They have two daughters, six-year-old India Ann Sushil and Taja Summer, 14 months.

“I wasn’t planning on saying anything,” McLachlan added, “but it’s gonna come out at some point. I haven’t said anything about it because I’ve been terrified to, but I figure … there’s no good time to say it, so I just said it.”

McLachlan called the situation “pretty gross” but did not elaborate on reasons for the separation or the couple’s future plans.

She described “U Want Me 2” as “about that really uncertain, confusing place at the end of a relationship when there’s no communication or closure, everything’s still up in the air and there’s a lot of anger and sadness. It’s sort of that working through ‘How do we move forward … with some dignity and grace.”

“Don’t Give Up,” she said, is “pretty self-explanatory, basically just a plea to give it another chance and keep trying.”

[From Popeater]

You can hardly blame her if her husband did something unforgivable. It sounds like he may have cheated to me, but who knows. The lyrics to “U Want Me 2” just make it sound like they drifted apart and/or didn’t get along.

It was widely assumed that People Magazine’s exclusive ongoing stories about singer Shania Twain’s husband’s affair were fed to the magazine by the singer. They just seemed to be certain about the details and were publishing personal photos that could have come from Shania herself. McLachlan is getting the word out through her songs instead of dishing to a magazine. It’s more honest if not as clear cut on the details.

You can watch the video for “U Want Me 2” on Amazon.com’s page for McLachlan.