He said: "When I am with her I know fairy tales exist. It's as if we are one being." She said: "I mean, he had great biceps. It was really the biceps that won me over. I was a goner after that."

But the current state of their marriage is, to paraphrase the statement issued by publicists: "Over".

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were labelled Hollywood's golden couple but some have always been sceptical about their union, although those who put those doubts in print have found themselves on the receiving end of a libel writ.

To cite "difficulties inherent in divergent careers" for the split seems odd as they've taken pains to see that their work did not interfere with family life, juggling work so that one of them was always free to look after their two adopted children.

Cruise and Kidman - even their names sounded great together like other Hollywood couples Taylor and Burton, Gable and Lombard. But the long and the short of the marriage is that he was the bigger star but his 6ft Aussie other half was a good few inches taller than him.

While he risked life and limb climbing mountains for scenes in Mission: Impossible 2, she stripped naked on the London stage in the play The Blue Room. Theatregoers were seeing more of Kidman than her husband.

Then he turned up without her for the London premiere of Mission: Impossible 2, teaming up instead with Gladiator star Russell Crowe. After almost literally bumping into Cruise at the premiere party, I began to wonder if even I wasn't seeing more of him than his wife.

It was all so different at the start. They were inseparable. After meeting on the film Days Of Thunder, they shared the screen again in the Irish family drama Far And Away. Most recently art imitated life when they played husband and wife in Stanley Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut. They had problems like any other couple. Where to spend the weekend - at their homes in America or Australia, or perhaps a rented mansion in London?

Their parting after ten years of marriage will only increase speculation about their relationship. Already Cruise is rumoured to have more in common with his latest co-star Penelope Cruz than the same-sounding surname. Kidman, meanwhile, was seen "laughing and flirting" with George Clooney at the recent Golden Globe awards.

Couples in Hollywood aren't renowned for celebrating golden wedding anniversaries. We all know that but they seem blind to the fact that fame, money and homes on several continents cannot buy you love