Chris Evans splits from Jenny Slate

Actors Jenny Slate (L) and Chris Evans have split. Photo / Getty

The 36-year-old actor - who is best known for playing Captain America in the Marvel superhero movies - and the American comedian have quietly ended their on-again, off-again relationship.

The news has been revealed in a profile piece about Chris in the New York Times newspaper, which says that their relationship, "beloved by the internet, recently ended".

The celebrity duo - who have always kept their romance relatively low-key - initially broke up in January last year, after less than a year of dating.

Actors Jenny Slate (L) and Chris Evans attend a premiere. Photo / Getty

But by the end of October, they were exchanging flirty messages over social media, prompting speculation that they had rekindled their relationship.

And Jenny confirmed the suspicions in a tweet in November, when she described Chris as being "dreamy".

She wrote on the micro-blogging website: "My boyfriend does many dreamy and generous things but number 1 in my mind right now is how he celebrates my new turtlenecks/let's me show him my online shopping spoils and cheers me on. (sic)"

In spite of their turbulent romance, Jenny has always been keen to praise Chris in public.
But the 35-year-old beauty admitted that, ultimately, Chris' level of fame and success played a role in their love troubles.

She shared: "We're really, really different.

"Chris is a very, very famous person. For him to go to a restaurant is totally different than for me to go. I sit in my window and I say 'Hi'

to people on the street. I have more freedom because I'm not Captain America. I'm mostly a cartoon."

Following their first split, Jenny claimed that ending their romance had helped her to return to normality.

She said: "This is what I needed to do to feel normal. To be alone."