Jack Wagner: Heather Locklear and I ‘Still Love Each Other Very Much’

Heather Locklear and Jack Wagner

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They didn’t get a happy ending together like the characters they played on Melrose Place, but it seems to be an amicable breakup for Heather Locklear and Jack Wagner.

They “still love each other very much,” Wagner, 52, says, according to TMZ.com. Their decision to call off the engagement, which they announced Tuesday, was in the interest of their respective families.

Wagner says they didn’t have enough time to spend with their children because they were planning their wedding. He and Locklear also decided, he adds, that they didn’t want to blend their families because their kids were too young and it would be disruptive.

Curiously, Wagner’s two sons Peter and Harrison – from his marriage to Kristina Malandro – are 21 and 16 respectively, and Locklear has a 14-year-old daughter, Ava, with ex-husband Richie Sambora.

Wagner’s comments also seem to contradict the way that Ava took the news of the engagement.

“Ava was so excited when we told her,” Locklear, 50, previously told PEOPLE of her daughter’s reaction to the news. “She hugged Jack, said congratulations, and she immediately wanted to see the ring. Then she ran and Facebooked her new stepbrother.”