LOS ANGELES, Dec 14 — British actor Colin Firth and his Italian wife yesterday announced they had split up after 22 years of marriage.

Firth, 59, known for playing stiff-upper-lipped Englishmen in films like Love Actually, Bridget Jones’s Diary and a television version of Pride and Prejudice, married documentary film producer Livia Giuggioli in 1997.

"Colin and Livia Firth have separated. They maintain a close friendship and remain united in their love for their children. They kindly ask for privacy. There will be no further comment,” representatives of the couple said in a joint statement.

Firth, one of Britain’s most beloved actors, won an Oscar and a Golden Globe in 2011 for his lead performance as a stuttering King George VI in The King’s Speech.

The couple’s decision to split follows an unpublicised separation several years ago, during which Livia Firth in a 2018 statement said that she had had a relationship with an Italian journalist. The couple later reunited.

Colin and Livia Firth have two sons. — Reuters