London, Dec. 23: In a case of reel life imitating real life, the acting couple, Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington, who play Dr John Watson and his wife, Mary Morstan, in the popular BBC TV series, Sherlock, have split up, it was announced today.

"I'm not with Amanda any more," Freeman was quoted today in the Financial Times. "It's very, very amicable - I'll always love Amanda," he added.

The BBC said it did not comment on the private lives of its stars but when the much anticipated fourth series of Sherlock returns to the screens on New Year's day - the drama was seen by 11.6 million viewers in exactly the same slot last year - the story will have moved on from Dr Watson's marriage last time around.

He and his wife have had a baby daughter, Rosamund Mary Watson, but the birth of the child has coincided with growing tensions in the marriage.

It seems exactly the same thing has happened to Freeman, 45, and Abbington, 42, who have had two children together. The couple met in 2000 on the set of their film Men Only and, as well as Sherlock, have appeared in a handful of other TV and movie productions.

They have kept their private life largely out of the public eye but have made occasional red carpet appearances together over the years.

Asked whether success had made him happier (he played Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit), Freeman admitted: "To a certain extent, yes. Not as much as it might have done, and not as much as maybe I would have hoped it had."

Conan Doyle made Watson a devoted family man although he always remained loyal to Holmes.

But the BBC have had a huge worldwide success by adapting Doyle's tales for contemporary times.

People today were intrigued by the remarkable coincidence in the lives of the fictional characters and the actors who portray Dr and Mrs Watson.

Abbington had been interviewed at length for Stella, the colour magazine that comes out with The Sunday Telegraph. But Freeman's disclosure of the split with Abbington has forced premature publication of the interview in today's Daily Telegraph.

In "a cruel example of life imitating art", Freeman and Abbington, "his partner both on and off-screen, have announced that they have broken up in real life, too", the paper said.

Doyle would not necessarily have taken a sympathetic view of the reasons given for the break-up. He made Watson the best sort of Englishman, utterly solid and dependable, and utterly faithful in his relationships.

Citing Freeman's lengthy overseas filming commitments as one of the key reasons behind the split, Abbington said the pair "realised we'd come to the end of our time together".

"Martin and I remain best friends and love each other, and it was entirely amicable," she said. "There was no hostility, really, we just said that we couldn't live together anymore, so we put everything in place, he moved out

to a flat in north London, I stayed at home and we've started a new chapter.

"It is sad and it is upsetting, because you think you're going to be with someone forever, but you either do that or you break up, and we both came to the decision that splitting was best for us. We've been really lucky to make it such a clean break, especially for the kids."

Abbington said that the resulting time apart, in which she had been left to care for the couple's children Joe, 10, and eight-year-old Grace, and had only spoken to Freeman via Skype, was "one of the reasons" the split occurred.

She added: "You can't be away from people for too long, because you start to function on your own, and you get used

to being separate (from) the person you're supposed to be with. You lose that connection and lose sight of it, in the end." Filming on the upcoming series, which shows cracks beginning to appear in the Watsons' marriage after the arrival of a new baby, began two weeks after the couple's real life split.

Abbington, who agreed that the coincidence was "so weird", said: "Especially playing new parents again, up all night feeding and things, because we were effectively revisiting how it was when we first got together."

The actress added: "I love working with Martin, and we definitely would do again, but there were some pressure points in this episode where we thought, 'Oh, are we doing the right thing here?', but the resounding answer was always yes."

She added: "He sees the children as much as he wants to, and (will spend) Christmas here. We play it by ear on childcare, and it's working so far. They'll get the best of us now, which is far better than living in a house that's not harmonious."