Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes split

"Kate and Sam are saddened to announce that they separated earlier this year," said a statement by lawyers Schillings.

Winslet, 34, and director Mendes, 44, married in a low-key private ceremony in the Caribbean in May 2003.

It was Winslet's second marriage, following her divorce from film director Jim Threapleton after three years of marriage.

The statement added: "The split is entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement.

"Both parties are fully committed to the future joint parenting of their children. They ask that the media respect the privacy of the family."

The couple have one child together, Joe, while Winslet has a daughter, Mia, from her first marriage.

Winslet won an Oscar for best actress for her role in The Reader in 2009.

The actress shot to global stardom in 1997 as the romantic heroine in James Cameron's Titanic - until recently the most successful movie of all time.

Awards winners

She was Oscar-nominated for Titanic, and was similarly nominated for her roles in Sense and Sensibility, Iris, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Little Children.

Mendes, an acclaimed director of both stage and film, won a best director Oscar for American Beauty in 2000.

He also directed Road to Perdition (2002) and Revolutionary Road (2008), in which Winslet was re-teamed with her Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.

Winslet won a Golden Globe in 2009 for her role in Revolutionary Road as a frustrated housewife living in 1950s America.

In her acceptance speech she thanked her husband for pushing her so hard: "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," she said.

"But I can honestly say with my hand on my heart that I loved every second of working with you and it's made me love you more."

Winslet presented the best actor award to Jeff Bridges at the Oscars at last week.

Both Winslet and Mendes were born in Reading, Berkshire.