'Sherlock' co-stars Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington split up in real life

LONDON, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Martin Freeman says he and his Sherlock co-star Amanda Abbington have ended their 16-year romance.

  "I'm not with Amanda any more," Freeman told The Financial Times about the mother of his two children. "It's very, very amicable -- I'll always love Amanda."

The actor did not reveal a reason or timeline for the split.

Abbington offered her take on the breakup in an interview with The Telegraph.

"Martin and I remain best friends and love each other, and it was entirely amicable," she said. "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. 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. We've been really lucky to make it such a clean break, especially for the kids."

Season 4 of Sherlock -- in which Freeman and Abbington play new parents John and Mary Watson -- is to premiere on Jan. 1.