'Friends' star Matt LeBlanc files for divorce

Matt LeBlanc and his wife Melissa. Picture / Reuters

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood actor Matt LeBlanc, who played the good-humored ladies' man Joey on the smash hit television comedy Friends, has filed for divorce from his wife of three years, Melissa Sue.

The 38-year-old actor, who now appears in Friends spinoff Joey, filed a dissolution of marriage petition in Los Angeles Superior Court under his full name, Matthew Steven LeBlanc, and listed the date of separation as Jan. 1, 2006.

Matt and Melissa Sue LeBlanc, a 41-year-old former model, have a 2-year-old daughter together.

"Melissa and Matt LeBlanc have decided to end their marriage of three years," the actor's spokesman, Joe Libonati, said in a statement. "The dissolution is amicable. They remain devoted parents and friends. For the sake of their family, they ask that their privacy be respected at this time."

LeBlanc rose to fame in Friends in which Joey struggled through an up-and-down acting career and various love affairs. When that series went off the air in 2004, LeBlanc headlined his own TV series, but Joey has never enjoyed the same type of success.

- REUTERS