Martin Freeman and Sherlock co-star Amanda Abbington split after 16 years

Martin Freeman has announced that he is no longer in a relationship with long-term partner and Sherlock co-star Amanda Abbington.

During a recent interview with the Financial Times, Martin commented on his relationship status, admitting: 'I’m not with Amanda any more.'

The pair had been in a relationship for 16 years, after meeting in 2000 on the set of the Channel 4 film, Men Only. Since then they have worked together, playing the roles of husband and wife in popular BBC crime drama, Sherlock.

With Martin taking one of the starring roles as Dr. Watson from the show's beginning, Amanda joined as his love interest Mary Morstan in series three. The on-screen couple will be seen welcoming a baby girl when the new series hits our screens in 2017.

In real life, Martin and Amanda share two children, Grace, eight, and Joe, ten.

Although Martin gave no clues of when the couple split in his interview, it sounds as though they are aiming for as amicable break up as possible.

Martin commented saying, 'It’s very, very amicable – I’ll always love Amanda.'

Both have been known to be notoriously private within their relationship, with Martin speaking openly on how he considers his personal life separate from his acting work. He has been quoted in the past saying, 'I’m just saying – mind your own business. My job is public, why should my private life be public as well?'

'We live in an age where you have to know everything and that’s tedious. If people make a fuss over me I think ‘Get out more.'

So it's no surprise that Martin wasn't giving anything away when it came to the reason behind the couples separation, but when pressed by a Financial Times interviewer he dropped hints that his starring role in The Hobbit could have contributed.

After being pushed to answer, he revealed, '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.'