After being together for more than three years, actress Meg Ryan and musician John Mellencamp have decided to break up.

A source close to the couple said 52-year old Ryan and 62-year old Mellencamp simply couldn't make their relationship work because of the distance.

"She lives in New York and he resides in Indiana. It was the distance that ultimately was the cause," the source explained.

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The couple, who got together in late 2010, kept a low profile during their relationship. The former lovers got together shortly after Mellencamp separated from his wife of 18 years, Elaine Irwin.

The "Small Town" singer shared his dissatisfaction with New York City, Ryan's city of residence, and how he just couldn't see himself moving there.

"I'm too sensitive to live there. I can't see poor people. I can't see the suffering. I can't see the trash on the streets. I'm not leaving Indiana. I'm going to die here," he said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine earlier this year.

Currently, Mellencamp is set to release album number 22, "Plain Spoken", this fall.

Ryan, on the other hand, will be making her directorial debut with the World War II drama "Ithaca". The said movie will be produced by Tom Hanks, Ryan's leading man in both "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail".

While Mellencamp was once married to Irwin and is a father to five children, Ryan shares a son named Jack with former husband, actor Dennis Quaid. She also adopted a little girl from China she called Daisy True.

Ryan and Quaid were married on Valentine's Day in 1991, which the actress only agreed to if Quaid stopped using cocaine.

In 2000, while still married to Quaid, Ryan became romantically involved with her "Proof of Life" co-star, Russell Crowe. After the affair became public, Ryan and Quaid separated and ther divorce was finalized on July 16, 2001.

She kept mum despite public criticisms of her affair with Crowe, but Ryan decided to redeem herself somehow by admitting in 2008 that Quaid was unfaithful to her the whole time they were married.

TagsMeg Ryan, John Mellencamp