The announcement from Foy, who plays the Queen in the series, and actor Campbell Moore comes just months after he had a lifesaving operation to remove a brain tumour.

He had another tumour removed five years earlier.

Foy, 33, and Campbell Moore, 38, met on the set of movie Season of the Witch in 2011.

They wed in 2014 and have a two-year-old daughter.

They confirmed their breakup in a statement to The Sun, explaining: “We have separated and have been for some time.

“We do however continue as great friends with the utmost respect for one another.”

A pal of the couple added: “After seven years together this came as a real shock to many of their friends, but they’re lovely people and are determined to keep everything civilised.

“Obviously it has been a very sad period for both of them, and for their wider families.

“But they are wonderful parents, intelligent and both successful in their own right.

“They’ve just decided that unfortunately their relationship simply wasn’t working and that this would be for the best.”

The pair were seen as one of the golden couples of British drama.

According to the Daily Mail, Foy was last seen on the red carpet of the 68th annual Berlin Film Festival and she was not wearing her wedding ring.

Campbell Moore appeared alongside Richard Griffiths and James Corden in 2006 film The History Boys.

Foy, who has won a Screen Actors Guild award and a Golden Globe, began starring in The Crown in 2016 as the young Elizabeth with Matt Smith as Prince Philip.

For told the Daily Mail that she had been worried about her husband’s welfare all through filming of season two of The Crown.

Campbell Moore said in an interview his recent life had been “eventful”.

He added: “Having a child, and her career becoming stratospheric, there have been a lot of things going on at one time.”

He said of his summer health battle: “You realise you’re not the most important person in that process, and everybody who loves you goes through far worse.

“My daughter didn’t know what was going on, at all. But my family did, and I could see it in them.

“There are certain things that you make sure you’ve done before you go into surgery. You write a letter. But it’s all very much on the off-chance that something did go wrong, because every part of you is saying that nothing will.”

This article first appeared in The Sun and is republished with permission.