Robin Thicke and wife Paula Patton announce separation after nine years of marriage... but insist they will always be best friends

By Heidi Parker

PUBLISHED: 16:10 EST, 24 February 2014 | UPDATED: 16:56 EST, 24 February 2014

Robin Thicke, 36, and Paula Patton, 38, have split.

On Monday the married couple of nine years announced they were separating.

'We will always love each other and be best friends, however, we have mutually decided to separate at this time,' they told People in a joint statement.

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Split: Paula Patton and Robin Thicke, pictured on January 25, announced on Monday they have separated

The news comes on the heels of several reports the 36-year-old crooner flirted behind the back of his 38-year-old actress wife.

Ever since his song Blurred Lines became a breakout hit in July 2013, the crooner has been caught in a series of bad situations.

Soon after Miley Cyrus twerked in his face and rubbed a foam finger on her private parts as she backed into him during the MTV Video Music Awards in August, he was caught with his hand on blonde socialite Lana Scolaro's derriere.

Paula Patton goes for the plunge at Clive Davis party

Their only child: The couple, seen here in October, have a son named Julian, aged three

The inappropriate image was captured with the help of a mirror behind the married star as he smiled innocently for the camera.

Also eyebrow raising was his late January flirtation with an exotic beauty inside the Parisian nightclub Club 79.

The singer was spotted embracing the looker, who had big hair and flashed a black bra. And then he was seen dirty dancing with her, grinning from ear to ear. Paula was nowhere in sight.

Though the longtime couple were seen arm-in-arm on January 25 at a Clive Davis party, just weeks later he was spotted without the Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol knockout when he went shopping with their son Julian, aged three, in West Hollywood on February 13.

No wife would be OK with this: Miley Cyrus gyrated on the Blurred Lines singer during the MTV Video Music Awards in August

Though they were man and wife for almost a decade, they met when he was only 14-years-old.

Five years after their 2005 wedding they welcomed Julian.

In 2013 the son of actor Alan Thicke said of Patton, 'We're pretty sure we've loved each other for a few lives.'

Handsy: The Give It 2 U singer had his hand on the back of sociailte Lana Scolaro's behind in August

Thicke was also in the news Sunday after a student group asked Boston University to cancel his upcoming concert, according to FoxNews.

The group is claiming his Blurred Lines hit song - which he sung at the VMAs with Cyrus - are sexist.

'Lyrics such as, "I know you want it," explicitly use non-consensual language,' the petition said. 'And while watching the extremely explicit video, the insinuations grow from subtle to explicit to obnoxious.'

Too much: Thicke left his wife at home as he hit the dance floor with a fan following his gig at Club 79 in Paris

Living it up: The Feel Good singer laughed it up after dirty dancing with the big-haired beauty

No mommy, just daddy: On February 13, the Magic singer took his son shopping in West Hollywood

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