JULIA ROBERTS AND BENJAMIN BRATT SAID TO BE CALLING IT QUITS

June 27, 2001Jun 27, 2001, 11:00 PM GMT+1

Oscar winner and Hollywood beauty Julia Roberts has split with her boyfriend of three years, hunky Law And Order star Benjamin Bratt. Though he was by her side at the Academy Awards in March, where she took home the best actress trophy for her role in Erin Brockovich, the two are now said to have parted ways.

“It’s true, they are no longer a couple,” Benjamin’s spokesman told New York’s Daily News. Julia’s representative confirmed the split to the New York Post.

Insiders suspected the two would tie the knot this summer, even going so far as to speculate they’d chosen her mum’s house as the location for the intimate affair. However those plans now seem to have been put on ice.

“She is having a very, very hard time with this,” a friend of the Notting Hill star told the Post.

Though the pair’s representatives insist the split was amicable, Hollywood gossip says it was Benjamin who ended the relationship. The Next Best Thing star was said to be incensed over Julia’s new-found friendship with George Clooney, with whom she co-stars in Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming remake of Ocean’s 11.

George Clooney has been in a long-term relationship with UK MTV personality Lisa Snowdon.

Julia’s next film, America’s Sweethearts, opens across the US on July 20.

Julia Roberts, previously married to country singer Lyle Lovett, was believed to be planning a summer wedding with boyfriend Benjamin Bratt, however nuptials no longer seem to be on the cards

Benjamin, who had a small but pivotal role in Traffic and is now filming Abandon in Montreal, had been dating the Pretty Woman star for nearly four years

George Clooney, who has been dating UK MTV presenter Lisa Snowdon, became close friends with Julia on the set of Ocean's 11, in which they both star

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