Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis Split: What Went Wrong?

USMagazine, Thursday, June 21, 2012, 11:30am (PDT)

Turns out where there's smoke there's fire.

For the past several months, rumors abounded that Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis had either ended their 14-year relationship -- or were on the precipice of saying goodbye.

Although they never wed, the Dark Shadows actor, 49, and the French singer-actress, 39, have been in a committed relationship since 1998, and share daughter Lily-Rose, 13, and son Jack, 10. Depp's rep told Us Weekly on Wednesday that the pair "have amicably separated . . .Please respect their privacy and, more importantly, the privacy of their children."

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Back in January, Paradis was on the defensive when a magazine cover claimed she and the blockbuster star were living separate lives on separate continents.

"Yes it's false, of course it's false!" Paradis said on French TV show Grand Journal after many outlets noticed that she was usually a no-show at her husband's many film premieres and shoots across the globe.

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"People say we are buying houses in the middle of nowhere, or that we have fifty two houses in France," she said. "All [of those rumors are] not too serious, but this latest one is a rumor which could cause a lot of harm to my family and my children."

"These magazines end up in the fireplace or the toilet," she added of the recent cover story.

While shooting The Tourist in Europe back in spring 2010, Depp and Paradis had a playdate with another superstar couple who had famously never wed: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Paradis spoke that same year about her unconventional partnership with Depp.

"We've understood that if we want it to carry on working, it's essential to give each other space," she told the UK's Sunday Times Magazine. "You don't eat the same food every day, you don’t read the same book or listen to the same record over and over again. You have to discover things for yourself."

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Depp (whose exes have included Winona Ryder and Kate Moss) similarly shrugged off pressures to wed his longtime love.

"I never found myself needing that piece of paper," he has said. "Marriage is really from soul to soul, heart to heart. You don't need somebody to say, okay you're married."

This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis Split: What Went Wrong?