Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin have legally finalised their separation.

The resolution was reached when the 43-year-old 'Iron Man' actress asked a judge to officially end her marriage after Chris, 39, deliberately failed to respond to her divorce petition because they had already reached an agreement about the terms of their split in private.

In doing so, the couple - who share joint custody of their son Moses, 10, and daughter Apple, 12 - ought to be able to keep the specific details of their agreement between themselves.

In 2014, Gwyneth and Chris released a much-discussed statement via her Goop site announcing that they were "consciously uncoupling" - a phrase that led to widespread ridicule.

Since then, however, the pair have remained on good terms and have even been on holiday together with their children.

Gwyneth has previously admitted just how much she struggled to cope with the collapse of her marriage.

She shared: "I am from a tribe of people who stay married. My parents stayed married until my dad died."

Indeed, the Hollywood star said her marriage to the Coldplay frontman had been a "failure".

She explained: "I really don't come from a culture of divorce at all, and I had very high hopes for what my life could be.

"I think that it was very difficult for me that I couldn't do that and that I wasn't able to be married to the father of my children for the rest of my life. It was very challenging for me in terms of having to re-assess what that said about me, ideas that I had about that kind of failure."