Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin announce their separation

One of Hollywood's most-watched couples is calling it quits.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin are separating after more than a decade of marriage, and they've revealed their sad news via her lifestyle website GOOP. (How modern of them!)

"It is with hearts full of sadness that we have decided to separate," they announced in a post titled "Conscious Uncoupling."

"We have been working hard for well over a year, some of it together, some of it separated, to see what might have been possible between us, and we have come to the conclusion that while we love each other very much we will remain separate."

They have two children: daughter Apple, 9, and son Moses, 7.

Paltrow has been in the news more for her personal life than any professional achievements after buzz spread that Vanity Fair magazine was planning a "takedown" cover story on the actress.

Editor Graydon Carter said the idea for a story about why Paltrow was such a "hated" celebrity blew up into a huge Hollywood feud, including a big power move by the Oscar winner.

"Paltrow sent out a mass e-mail to her show-business friends saying that the magazine was going 'tabloid' following our coverage of Tom Cruise's search for the perfect Scientology wife, and Brad Pitt's search for the perfect action-film franchise," he wrote in his March editor's letter. " 'Vanity Fair is threatening to put me on the cover of their magazine without my participation,' she said. 'I recommend you all never do this magazine again.' She asked that they not speak to Vanity Fair about her, or about anything else ever again. Ever. Never. Kim Jong-un couldn't have issued a more blanket demand. In due time, the e-mail made its way onto the New York Post's 'Page Six.' An actress throwing a hissy fit is hardly news. But the extreme ferocity of Paltrow's outrage set off alarm bells throughout the dark regions of the celebrity-mining industry. The overall theory: she must have something to hide."

Of course speculation about what that something was ran the gamut from broken friendships to marital issues to an affair.

Carter explained that the assigned reporter did write the story they'd discussed, but after all of the hubbub, he decided the final product would be a letdown given the hype.

"The fact is the Gwyneth Paltrow story, the one we ordered up, delightfully written as it was, is not the one the anti-Gwynethites expect. ... The thing of it is, we really don't publish 'epic,' out-of-the-blue 'takedowns' of individual public figures, unless they are in heated conflict with another public figure or unless their positions and their actions have a grievous effect on the lives of others. We'll save our gunpowder for bigger stories."