Singer Robin Thicke And actress Paula Patton Separate

Paula Patton announced today that she and singer Robin Thicke have decided to end their marriage.

The pair met twenty-two years ago at an underage LA club, and have been married for the past nine years. Their son, Julian Fuego Thicke, was born in April 2010.

“We will always love each other and be best friends, however, we have mutually decided to separate at this time,” the statement, released to People said.

The breakup comes at a time when both are experiencing some success in their respective careers.

Thicke, 36, a journeyman musician for more than a decade, released an explosive hit, “Blurred Lines,” last summer, and soared to international notoriety in August when he dueted with Miley Cyrus at the MTV Video Music Awards.

The performance was a parody of Thicke’s explicit video for “Blurred Lines. In it, three topless models strut around the stage, while Thicke, Pharrell Williams and rapper T.I. sing.

Miley wore a flesh colored bikini and a big foam finger and made MTV history with her racy twerking and lewd, crotch-grabbing gestures.

Afterward, Thicke was thrust into a national debate over the propriety of the song, the performance, sexism, misogyny and Cyrus’s transformation into a sexually uninhibited pop star.

Through it all, Patton stood by her man, voicing support for the performance on numerous talk shows.

But fame may have ultimately doomed the marriage.

Thicke was photographed canoodling with a woman at trendy Club 79 in Paris in January. Rumors that the relationship was on the rocks have been circulating for months and may predate the MTV performance.

Agencies/Canadajournal