Australian actor Russell Crowe and Danielle Spencer have decided to leave after nine years of marriage.

The Oscar winning actor and his musician wife have separated with Crowe’s busy work schedule being cited as the reason for the break-up, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

The couple met 22 years ago on the set of the film The Crossing before splitting up while the Gladiator star went overseas to further his career.

In the time they spent apart, Crowe had a high-profile affair with actress Meg Ryan before returning to rekindle his relationship with Spence.

The couple married at a chapel on the New Zealand-born actor’s farm in New South Wales, Australia.

“The thought [of marrying her] crossed my mind the first time I met her,”  he told the Morning Herald at the time of their 2003 wedding.

The couple have two children together, Charles, eight, and six-year-old Tennyson.

It is understood the children will remain with their mother while her now-estranged husband continues filming the biblical epic Noah in the US.

There were rumours surrounding their relationship in June when Spencer was pictured on a night out with her Australia’s Dancing With The Stars partner Damian Whitewood while her husband was away working.

But the rumours were quickly dispelled and the couple were pictured out and about together.

Crowe currently has a total of six movies in the pipeline, including the Iron Fist, Les Miserables, Broken City, Superman, Noah and his next project The Winter’s Tale, with Colin Farrell and Will Smith.

There has been no comment from the couple.

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