Will Gwyneth and Chris split?

by RICHARD SIMPSON, Evening Standard

They are the golden couple. Gwyneth Paltrow and her rock star fiance Chris Martin seem the perfect celebrity romance.

But now friends fear the pressures of media attention may have brought them to the brink of splitting up after a string of blazing rows.

As Martin, 26, was today ordered to appear in court in Australia for damaging a photographer's car, it emerged that neighbours of Paltrow's Belgravia flat have reported a shouting match which ended with the actress telling Martin: "I can't go on like this".

The row - clearly audible through the apartment's balcony windows which had been flung wide open in last week's heat - came after the couple returned from a walk around shops in Knightsbridge.

It fast became a circus when they were pursued by five photographers and autograph hunters.

After the row, Martin flew out to start a tour of Australia with his band Coldplay, leaving Paltrow, 30, alone in the apartment.

She is believed to have made up with the singer later and flown out to join him.

The couple's relationship is also under pressure since Paltrow is torn between living with Martin in London and returning to the US to be with her mother, Blythe Danner, after the death of her father Bruce.

It was against that background that Martin was arrested yesterday after allegedly "losing it" and attacking a photographer's car with a rock and letting down its tyres.

Martin does not drink, smoke or take drugs and is known for being level-headed and mild-mannered, but in an astonishing change of character, he rowed with the freelance photographer yesterday after he was snapped surfing at Byron Bay, New South Wales.

Photographer John Lister, 47, said: "I followed him to the beach south of Byron Bay and photographed him surfing.

"He saw what I was doing and came out of the water and asked me to delete the images. He was a bit upset - for some reason he didn't want to be photographed surfing in his wetsuit.

"I refused as I said it was a public beach and I was allowed to take pictures there.

"He was quite aggressive and obviously very unhappy with me, and he just lost it.

"I was walking back to my Jeep and he ran ahead of me and started hitting it with a rock.

"Then he began to let the air out of the tyres. I wasn't frightened of him, just angry, and shouted at him.

"So he shouted 'Don't take any more f***ing pictures', then ran away."

Martin will face court in Byron Bay on 8 October charged with malicious damage.

A friend said: "Gwyneth is still distraught by the death of her father and has hardly worked since then.

"That is strain enough on their relationship and the added pressure of fame is making matters worse."

Her engagement ring was absent when they strolled around London last week.

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