Awkwardness is when there's a risk of a perception gap between what you mean and what you appear to mean.
Make sure you have legal cover for what you're doing.
The sudden death of a partner while expecting a child is so universally understood as awful that I don't think anyone with any other weight to carry is going to get to same kind of sympathy - except perhaps people who lose a child.
Minimizing exposure to miserable people is nothing short of a life strategy.
I believe in innocence until there's proof of guilt and all that.
Separation is where you see if it works better with the adults in two different homes.