Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington left fans reeling after announcing their split in 2016. The actors were in a relationship for 16 years after meeting on the set of TV movie Men Only and share two children, Joe and Grace, born in 2006 and 2008 respectively. But their romance came to an end in 2016, with Amanda revealing they simply could not live together anymore. The Sherlock actress said: "Martin and I remain best friends and love each other, and it was entirely amicable.

There was no hostility, really, we just said that we couldn’t live together anymore, so we put everything in place, he moved out to a flat in north London, I stayed at home and we’ve started a new chapter." She continued: "It is sad and it is upsetting, because you think you’re going to be with someone forever, but you either do that or you break up, and we both came to the decision that splitting was best for us." Amanda added to The Telegraph: "We’ve been really lucky to make it such a clean break, especially for the kids."

The following year, Martin, 53, opened up about their separation and spoke about working alongside his ex in Sherlock.

"I mean, we're very friendly and it's all lovely and cool," he told Radio Times. "Yes, we've not been together for a while. I mean we did the series not together. You know enough about me to know that I won't talk about it, but I'm all right, yes.