Jennifer Lopez And Marc Anthony Announce Divorce

Jul 15, 2011, 17:57 by Sarah Long

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have announced that they are ending their seven-year marriage.

"We have decided to end our marriage. This was a very difficult decision. We have come to an amicable conclusion on all matters," the couple said in a statement issued to People and Us Weekly. 

"It is a painful time for all involved and we appreciate the respect of our privacy at this time.

Anthony, 42, was absent at Saturday's star-packed BAFTA Brits to Watch event in L.A., where wife Lopez, 40, met Prince William and Duchess Kate with mom Guadalupe as her date, Us Weekly reports.

The ex-couple renewed their wedding vows last year for their sixth anniversary at their Hidden Hills, Calif. estate June 5. "We realized the bets in Vegas [on whether we'd make it] stopped at five years," Anthony joked to Us Weekly.

The singers, who have two children together, twins named Emme and Max, were married in 2004.