Rumors have been circulating that the cause for the breakup of Daniel Johns marriage to Natalie Imbruglia, is that he has started a relationship with openly gay Paul Mac.

Blogs and forums around Australia are buzzing with speculation about the new couple. The Big Day Out board announces "so it turns our Daniel Johns is gay".

According the the official statement issued by Johns and Imbruglia "While we are very sad our marriage has ended we want to make it clear that our parting is amicable and we remain friends. This mutual decision has not been taken lightly or quickly ... we have simply grown apart through not being able to spend enough time together."

Johns, meanwhile, has been concentrating on his music career, including launching a successful collaboration with musician Paul Mac.

Both Johns, 28, and Imbruglia, 32, have publicly joked about -- and dismissed -- the rumours about Johns' sexuality.

Many music industry types speculated their marriage was on the rocks when Johns did not thank his wife during the band's several acceptance speeches at the ARIA awards in late October. Imbruglia did not attend, with a representative saying she had to remain on the Adelaide set of independent Australian film Elise.

Tags: coming out, daniel john, gay, natalie imbruglia, paul mac