Absence did not make Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's hearts grow fonder.
Through their publicist Pat Kingsley, Hollywood's power couple made it official yesterday that they are ending their 11-year marriage.
"Citing the difficulties inherent in divergent careers, which constantly kept them apart, they concluded that an amicable separation seems best for both of them," said Kingsley.
Cruise, 38, and Kidman 33, have two adopted children, Isabella, 7, and Connor, 5.
It is not known yet whether custody will be shared as Kingsley refused to comment beyond the official release.
It's ironic that Cruise and Kidman would cite their divergent careers as the cause of their breakup. They worked together for 52 weeks over a 15-month period on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut -- and Cruise recently executive produced Kidman's film The Others.
Cruise and Kidman's marriage has been plagued by rumours, though they have managed to squelch most of them through lawsuits. In 1998, the couple successfully sued the British newspaper Express on Sunday for an article which claimed their marriage was a business arrangement and that one or both of them was gay. Cruise and Kidman received an apology, a retraction and $320,000, which they donated to a children's charity.
The same year, Cruise and Kidman sued the supermarket publication The Globe and photojournalist Eric Ford, 27, for publishing a transcript of an alleged argument the couple had over their cell- phones. They sued and won for invasion of privacy.
Cruise also won a suit against a German magazine which published a story claiming he was sterile.
During the filming of Eyes Wide Shut, the couple sued the National Enquirer and the Globe for printing stories claiming the actors had hired a sex therapist to help them make their screen love scenes more authentic.
Cruise and Kidman met on the set of the 1990 drama Days of Thunder. At the time, he had been married to actress Mimi Rogers, 45, for three years.
Kidman just pulled out of David Fincher's drama The Panic Room, citing a knee injury.
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