Pretty woman Julia comforts Kate Winslet
( 2001-09-07 13:41 ) (7 )

Hollywood star Julia Roberts, who split from her long-time love Benjamin Bratt in June, has been comforting British actress Kate Winslet in the aftermath of her marriage breakup, British newspapers reported on Friday.

"Titanic" star Winslet, who announced on Monday she was separating from Jim Threapleton after less than three years of marriage, told reporters outside her London home that Roberts had sent her an extravagant bouquet of flowers.

"The flowers are from Julia. I don't want there to be any speculation about who they were from. I have thanked Julia for the flowers and card," papers quoted her as saying.

News of Winslet's breakup made headlines around the world. Threapleton's grandfather has said his grandson, an assistant film director, had struggled to cope with the pressures of Winslet's huge success while his own career languished.

Roberts, 33, Hollywood's highest-paid female star, has also been the object of a tabloid feeding frenzy since the abrupt end of her four-year affair with 37-year-old actor Bratt.

Like Winslet, Roberts' breakup came as a shock to many who considered the relationship to be rock solid.

U.S. newspapers have said Bratt struggled to cope with the pressure of life with one of the world's most famous women and initiated the break-up after he was unable to get Roberts to commit to marriage.

Roberts' checkered love life has regularly featured in magazines and tabloids since she shot to fame in the film "Pretty Woman."

She was engaged to actor Kiefer Sutherland in 1991 but broke off the engagement shortly before their planned wedding.

In 1993 she married country singer Lyle Lovett, but the couple divorced two years later.