Elliott Gould believes he and Barbra Streisand split because "she became more important than us"

Reflecting on their relationship on 'CBS Sunday Morning', he said: "Well, Barbra asked me at one point, because she’s still writing her book, she said, ‘Why did we grow apart?’

"And I said my question would be, ‘How could we have grown apart?’ And the answer to that is that we didn’t grow together and the reason for that was because she became more important than us."

But Elliott has no regrets about his relationship with the 78-year-old star.

He added: "Then I also said to her, 'We did great. We made it very fast and nobody has what we have. There’s you and me and our kid.' "

The pair met on Broadway when Barbra, then 19, was auditioning for a part in a play that Elliott was leading and he recalled phoning to ask her out after she gave out her number while confused as to what to do when her try-out was over.

He recalled: "So after her last audition, they say, ‘Thank you.’ She then was very flummoxed as to being right there and not knowing what was going to happen next, and so she announced her phone number and said, ‘So would somebody call me.’ I remembered her number and I called her.

"And [then] we got married and we had a son and we had a great life."

The 'Long Goodbye' actor went on to marry Jennifer Bogart in 1973 and again in 1978 after a brief split in 1975. The pair - who have Samuel and Molly together - divorced for the second time in 1979.

Meanwhile, 'Funny Girl' actress Barbra remarried in 1998 when she tied the knot with James Brolin.