After being cut from the wreckage of a car crash last weekend, Morgan Freeman is in for more rough times according to his business partner who has revealed the Hollywood veteran is to divorce his wife of 24 years.

The Oscar-winner’s attorney and business partner, Bill Luckett, told Access Hollywood that Freeman and costume designer Myrna Colley-Lee “are involved in a divorce action”.

He went on: “For legal and practical purposes, [Freeman and Colley-Lee] have been separated since December of 2007.”

The actor had previously denied the split, telling reporters as recently as last month that he didn’t know anything about divorce rumours.

The 71-year-old actor married Colley-Lee in 1984. He was previously married to Jeanette Bradshaw, who he had two children with before divorcing in 1979. The pair also adopted a baby and together raised Bradshaw’s child from a previous relationship.

Freeman is in a Memphis hospital recovering from surgery to his left arm after the Sunday night crash, which saw the car he was driving leave the road and flip over several times before coming to rest in a ditch.

A spokesperson for the actor said he was expected to make a good recovery: "Morgan is doing well after his surgery to reconnect nerves and repair damage in his left arm and hand. He is visiting with family this morning. As of this morning he's up and walking around and looking forward to his release as soon as possible."

Freeman was driving a car belonging to his passenger, Demaris Meyer, 48. The actor has described her as a friend. No comment has been made on Meyer’s condition, who was also cut from the wreckage and airlifted to hospital alongside Freeman.

Having starred in the revered Million Dollar Baby and The Shawshank Redemption, Freeman is currently on cinema screens in the Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight. He is due to play Nelson Mandela in the Clint Eastwood-directed The Human Factor, which begins shooting next year.

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