British Stars Thompson and Branagh Split Up

LONDON — Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh, Britain’s premier show-biz couple, have separated.

“Our work has inevitably led to our spending long periods of time away from each other and, as a result, we have drifted apart,” the couple said in a statement published today by Press Assn., Britain’s domestic news agency.

The two married in 1989 when Thompson was 30 and Branagh was 28, and became internationally known when they starred together in Branagh’s directorial debut, a film version of Shakespeare’s play “Henry V.”

Thompson won an Oscar in 1993 and became a hot Hollywood property. In contrast, Branagh’s 1994 flirtation with Hollywood, “Frankenstein,” flopped.