Just three months after confirming that they were an item, US actress Jenny McCarthy, 39, and Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, 34, have decided to go their separate ways.

She told E! News in a statement: "Brian and I have decided to turn our romance into an amazing friendship... I will continue to be the biggest cheerleader for him. Go, Bears!"

McCarthy had opened up about the US football athlete when she appeared on TV talk show Chelsea Lately last month, when she jokingly said: "It's going really good. I didn't have to find love in the wild...I found iton the football field."

Before Urlacher came along, McCarthy, a mum of one, was dating fitness model Jason Toohey, but their romance didn't last.

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