Hollywood actors Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones “are taking time apart” after 13 years of marriage, it has been confirmed.
The actress’s publicist told the BBC the couple had taken the decision in order to “evaluate and work on their marriage”.
Douglas, 68, and Swansea-born Zeta Jones, 43, married in 2000 after meeting in France two years earlier.
They have two children - Dylan, 13, and Carys, 10.
The pair has both struggled with health problems in recent years.
Douglas was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2010, while Zeta Jones sought treatment for bipolar disorder in 2011 and again earlier this year.
At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Douglas claimed his condition - which is now in remission - had been caused by oral sex.
The couple share the same birthday, 25 September, and met at the Deauville Film Festival in France in 1998.
They had their first child in August 2000, and married three months later in a lavish ceremony at New York’s Plaza hotel, where guests included Goldie Hawn, Christopher Reeve, Jack Nicholson and Brad Pitt.
OK! magazine paid £1m for exclusive access to photographs of the day, but rival magazine Hello! spoiled the scoop by publishing pictures taken by somebody pretending to be a guest or a waiter.
A long legal battle followed in the UK, with the couple arguing that Hello! had invaded their privacy.
The case was eventually resolved in 2007, when the House Of Lords ruled Hello! had breached OK!’s confidentiality.
Prior to the wedding, the couple reportedly signed a pre-nuptial agreement, which entitles Zeta Jones to £1m for every year of their marriage in the event of the relationship coming to an end.
Douglas insisted on the contract after his first wife, Diandra, was awarded £44m in their divorce.
