Actor Jim Carrey and former Playboy model Jenny McCarthy who used their celebrity couple status to raise concerns about a link between vaccines and autism say they are splitting up.

Carrey made the announcement Tuesday via Twitter where he wrote, “Jenny and I have just ended our 5yr relationship. I’m grateful 4 the many blessings we’ve shared and I wish her the very best!”

A posting on McCarthy’s Twitter page reads, “Im so grateful for the years Jim and I had together.” McCarthy continued by saying that she, “will always keep Jim as a leading man in my heart.”

As a couple, the two were out front in their belief that vaccines can cause autism and often appeared on Larry King Live and other television programs to discuss the issue. McCarthy’s son Evan, 7, has the developmental disorder.

Together they are the public face of Generation Rescue, a California-based nonprofit whose stated mission is “recovering children with autism using biomedical intervention.”

Despite McCarthy and Carrey’s claims, numerous scientific studies have ruled out a link between vaccines and autism.

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