Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet separate after 18 years together

Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet have announced their separation after 18 years together.

The French actress and director, who had been in a relationship since 2007, announced their separation in a statement to the AFP news agency on Friday.

"After 18 years together, Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet have decided to separate by mutual agreement," reads the statement from their representatives. "This decision was made with mutual goodwill."

Their reps explained that the stars wanted to make the decision public "in order to avoid any speculation, rumours, and risky interpretations".

The statement concludes, "By demonstrating transparency through this press release, Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet also express their desire that their privacy, and especially that of their two children, be respected."

The Oscar-winning actress and the actor/director share a 14-year-old son named Marcel and a daughter, Louise, who was born in 2017.

Cotillard, 49, and Canet, 52, starred alongside each other in 2003's Love Me If You Dare, also known as Children's Games, but didn't embark on a relationship until 2007.

The Inception actress has appeared in several of Canet's directorial projects, including Little White Lies, Blood Ties, Rock'n Roll, We'll End Up Together and Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom.

Last month, they finished filming the psychological thriller Karma, for which he directed her on-screen performance. The film will be released next year.

Cotillard is best known in Hollywood for her portrayal of French singer Edith Piaf in 2007's La Vie en Rose, for which she won the Best Actress Oscar, and her appearances in English-language films, including The Dark Knight Rises, Contagion and Inception.