Vanessa Paradis, Samuel Benchetrit announce separation

French singer and actress Vanessa Paradis has announced that she and filmmaker and novelist Samuel Benchetrit have separated after nearly a decade together.

"Vanessa Paradis and Samuel Benchetrit have mutually decided to separate, with the respect and affection they continue to have for one another," her manager said in a brief statement sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The couple married on June 30, 2018. Vanessa Paradis, 53, began her music career at a very young age in the 1980s with the hit song Joe le taxi, CE Report quotes ANSA.

Samuel Benchetrit, 53, has directed several films, including J'ai toujours rêvé d'être un gangster and Asphalte. He has also staged several theater productions, including Lapin, and written around ten books, among them Reviens and La Nuit avec ma femme, the latter a tribute to Marie Trintignant, to whom he was previously married.

Photo: Instagram/vanessa.paradis