Explaining divorce to friends young children?

[whycantitbecalm]

I'm struggling how to handle this.

My ex husband and i have divorced in the last year.
We (myself and my kids) spend a lot of time with these particular friends and they have two children 4&6 who have occasionally mentioned that my ex isn't coming out for day trips with us, but not very often.

I'd like to have an answer ready for then when they ask where he is and why they haven't seen him, that doesn't make them worry that this could happen to their family.

Any ideas?

I think you just have to be matter of fact about it ‘he doesn’t live with us anymore’, single parents aren’t rare or a dirty secret. Many kids don’t assume stuff like this will happen to them and if they do wonder then that’s for their parents to chat to them about.

Thank you @TeaKitten yep myself and their parents are trying to decide the best route to take, this feels harder than telling my own kids x

I can guarantee if they are in nursery or school they already know single parent families .

as op said matter of fact - because we don’t live together anymore so the children see him at different times . Depending on age they already know .