Kate Winslet splits from director Sam Mendes

LONDON — British movie star Kate Winslet has separated from her film director husband Sam Mendes after nearly seven years of marriage, their law firm said Monday.

The surprise split puts an end to a golden couple of Britain's show business world, buttressed by matching Oscars and a host of commercial successes and artistic accolades. The pair's law firm, Schillings, said the split was "entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement."

The pair married in a small, low-key ceremony in the Caribbean in May 2003. It was Winslet's second marriage. Her first, to British director Jim Threapleton, ended in divorce in 2001.

Winslet has an 9-year-old daughter, Mia, from her marriage to Threapleton and a 6-year-old son, Joe, with Mendes. Schillings' statement said Winslet and Mendes were "fully committed to the future joint parenting of their children."