Sam Mendes and Kate Winslet are separated

Kate Winslet and her husband Sam Mendes have said they separated “earlier this year” in a shock announcement that has caught the British tabloids napping. The British actress and director were considered one of Hollywood’s golden couples since their wedding in 2003, despite making their home in New York.

The couple’s lawyers, Schillings, said in a statement: "Kate and Sam are saddened to announce they separated earlier this year. The split is entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement. Both parties are fully committed to the joint parenting of their children."

Winslet and Mendes were an evenly matched couple. Both were born in Reading and each has won an Oscar – she a best actress award for The Reader and he a best director gong for American Beauty.

But the announcement comes as a total shock, particularly the revelation that the two are already separated. The fact that Winslet attended the Oscars alone this year – where she presented Jeff Bridges with the best actor award – sparked none of the tabloid speculation one might have expected.

Only last week, Leonardo DiCaprio, the Hollywood actor who co-starred with Winslet in 1997’s Titanic and again in the 2008 film Revolutionary Road, described filming a sex scene with the actress in the latter film, which Mendes directed.

He told Esquire magazine: “When the scene [in Revolutionary Road] was about to start, Kate said, ‘Wait, wait, this is totally weird’. She turned to Sam and me and said, ‘Are you guys okay?’ We looked at each other and said, ‘Yeah, we’re totally fine’. She said, ‘It’s even weirder you’re both totally fine’.”

By then, the couple had been married for five years. Mendes said directing his wife was one of the best experiences of his life, but he did say she liked to discuss the movie constantly, while he liked to switch off some evenings. Winslet won a best actress Golden Globe for her performance in Revolutionary Road, but missed out on the Oscar.

When she finally did win her best actress Oscar for her part in The Reader in 2009, Winslet was profuse in her praise for her husband: "Thank you for directing this film, babe, and thank you for killing us every single day and really enjoying us actually being in such horrific pain."

People will speculate that such an intense working relationship may have left little time for normal married life. ·