Canadian singer Shania Twain splitting from music-producer husband

Award-winning Canadian music star Shania Twain is splitting from her music- producer husband Robert (Mutt) Lange, a representative for the singer revealed Thursday.

The couple "are separating after 14 years of marriage," spokesman Jason Owen said in a statement.

"This is a private matter and there will be no further comment at this time."

The 42-year-old Twain and 59-year-old Lange married in December 1993, after meeting just six months earlier.

At the time, the singer, who was born in Windsor, Ont., and raised in Timmins in northern Ontario,was a budding country singer in Nashville with just a self-titled debut album under her belt.

Still, she managed to attract the interest of Lange, whose producer credits included working with artists like AC/DC, Def Leppard, Foreigner and Bryan Adams.

He encouraged her to pursue writing her own songs and together, they quickly crafted her sophomore release, the blockbuster album The Woman in Me, which spawned hits such as Any Man of Mine.

Their collaboration continued through later albums Come on Over and Up!, which successfully crossed over into the pop realm and sold millions of copies around the globe.

With hits like You're Still the One, That Don't Impress Me Much and Man! I Feel Like a Woman, Twain became one of the world's most popular female pop singers.

Meanwhile, she received a host of accolades back home, included the opening of the Shania Twain Centre in Timmins in 2001, being inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2003 and joining the Order of Canada in 2005.

Twain has also racked up trophies from the Grammy Awards, Juno Awards, the Academy of Country Music and BMI Songwriter Awards.

After releasing a greatest hits album in 2004, Twain said last year that she was working on a new album, tentatively set for release in 2008.

The couple have a six-year-old son named Eja, with the familybased in Switzerland.