Colin Firth and wife Livia Giuggioli have sadly split after 22 years of marriage.

After 22 years of marriage, actor Colin Firth and his wife, Italian film producer Livia Giuggioli, have separated.

“They maintain a close friendship and remain united in their love for their children. They kindly ask for privacy. There will be no further comment,” they said in a joint statement from their publicists.

Firth, 59, and Giuggioli, 50, share two children together, Matteo, 16, and Luca, 18.

The actor, known for his prominent roles in seminal films Love Actually, Bridget Jones’s Diary and The King’s Speech, has been married to Giuggioli since 1997.

In 2011, Firth said in an interview with Piers Morgan that he would never cheat on his wife with a co-star.

"It does help to realise that, however stunning the person who is fluttering eyelashes at you, she doesn’t do anything to match up to your wife. To me, she’s the most beautiful woman in the world."

But in recent years, their marriage has been at the centre of headlines concerning Giuggioli's affair with the couple's alleged stalker.

Here's what we know.

Livia Giuggioli's affair.

The news comes nearly two years after a bizarre incident in which Colin Firth had asked Italian police to investigate a man he believed was stalking his wife.

Within days of the investigation being made public, Giuggioli admitted she had had an affair with the ‘stalker’, an Italian journalist named Marco Brancaccia who was her childhood friend.

The couple was subsequently forced to admit they had previously temporarily split, during which time Livia became romantically involved with Marco. But when she ended the fling to reunite with her actor husband, the couple claim the journalist began a “frightening campaign of harassment”.

"A few years ago Colin and Livia privately made the decision to separate," the couple said in a statement in March 2018. "During that time Livia briefly became involved with former friend Mr. Brancaccia. The Firths have since reunited.

"Subsequently, Mr. Brancaccia carried out a frightening campaign of harassment over several months, much of which is documented."

In a 2018 interview with PEOPLE Magazine, 55-year-old Marco denied he was stalking Giuggioli, saying his alleged "campaign of harassment" only included "two WhatsApp messages, one happy birthday [text message] and an email to Colin".

"The reality is that Livia and I have known each other since we were youths, then in 2015-2016 we had an 11-month love affair," Marco told the publication.

"After [the affair] ended in June 2016, I never called her again."

Marco claimed that in "a moment of frustration, sadness" after the affair was over, he sent an email to Firth telling him of the relationship: "[It was] a terrible moment... I would never now send that email."

Marco also stated that Firth replied to his note, and seemed "sympathetic" to the situation.

"After a couple of days, he answered. He was polite," he said.

"He wrote something along the lines of, 'You hurt me, but I understand that you are hurting too.' After that, I never got in touch with them again."

He described his relationship with Liva as a "true love story" and said she abruptly ended the romance when he began asking her to divorce her husband so they could be together properly.

"I have no reason to doubt that when she said she loved me and she wanted to be with me, she was being honest," he said.

"But when it came to actions, and I asked her when she would tell Colin, she abruptly ended the relationship."

Brancaccia was officially charged with stalking in May 2018, after authorities found “abusive messages and emails” on Brancaccia’s phone during the investigation, according to a report from The Times.

The case was settled out of court in July 2018.

Nearly two years following the incident being made public, the high-profile couple has now split.

Feature Image: Getty.

For more celebrity news, sign up for our "Mamamia Celebrity" newsletter. The best entertainment stories of the day to help you unwind.