Country music’s Beyoncé and Jay Z, whose marriage catapulted them into stardom, say they are splitting up after four years together

Country music’s reigning power couple, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, announced on Monday that they are divorcing after four years of marriage.

“This is not the future we envisioned,” the couple said in a statement to the Associated Press. “And it is with heavy hearts that we move forward separately. We are real people, with real lives, with real families, friends and colleagues. Therefore, we kindly ask for privacy and compassion concerning this very personal matter.”

Lambert, 31, and Shelton, 39, met while filming a CMT special in 2005, when Shelton was still married to his first wife, Kaynette Williams. Shelton and Williams divorced in 2006 after three years of marriage, and he began dating Lambert shortly thereafter. In 2011, Shelton and Lambert tied the knot in her home state of Texas.

Both artists’ careers were on the rise at the time of their nuptials, but the high-profile marriage quickened their ascent to superstardom. Shelton became a household name as a wisecracking coach on NBC’s smash hit The Voice in 2011, and Lambert, who for years survived in country music as a critical favourite without much sales power, blossomed into a commercial powerhouse with No 1 hits such as The House That Built Me and Over You. Well-liked by country music fans and the Nashville establishment alike, Shelton and Lambert have won every single male vocalist and female vocalist trophy at the CMA awards since 2010.

Tabloid rumours suggesting a rocky marriage have plagued the couple for years, but Shelton and Lambert have both laughed them off on social media until recently. The stars appeared together at the ACM awards in April, and they performed a concert with one another over the Fourth of July weekend. Shelton will next perform on 24 July at a country festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, while Lambert is scheduled to play at an event in Nashville four days later.