Chris Martin and fiancée Dakota Johnson name off engagement

Chris Martin and his fiancée Dakota Johnson have called off their engagement and split for good after drifting apart, MailOnline can reveal.

The Coldplay frontman, who got together with Dakota in 2017 and got engaged several years ago, is said to have ‘now accepted the relationship is over – and it’s best to move on’.

American actress Dakota, 34, was pictured last weekend without her emerald engagement ring as she walked her dog in Malibu where she used to live with the Coldplay frontman.

She has been repeatedly photographed dancing at Coldplay concerts over the years, but she is currently around 6,000 miles away from Martin, 47, who is in Munich, Germany, on the European leg of Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres world tour.

The pair had a brief rumoured split in 2019 which was alleged to be over him pushing for them to have children, but they quickly got back together.

There was more speculation that they had parted in May this year after Devon-born Chris gave a lift to a woman fan who later posted on X that the singer was ‘single’.

However, the couple appeared to be together in June when a source told PEOPLE magazine that they were still ‘going strong’, saying: ‘They’ve had ups and downs, but now they’re definitely back on.’

But MailOnline has now learned that they have split up for good after trying in vain to find a way of staying together.

A source said: ‘Chris and Dakota have tried desperately hard over the past few months to make their relationship work.

‘They’ll always have love for each other but they’ve both come to the conclusion the relationship cannot be sustained long-term.

‘They’re both busy people, Chris has been in Europe with Coldplay and they both have personal priorities, passions and work commitments which don’t naturally intertwine with each other.

‘They wanted it to work but it just hasn’t, and they’ve now accepted it is best to move on.’

Fifty Shades of Grey star Dakota and Martin secretly split up briefly in June but soon reconciled.

They quietly endured what insiders described as ‘a rocky patch’ – before getting back together. They were last photographed together in February while they were on holiday in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Martin famously split from actress wife Gwyneth Paltrow, the mother of his two children Apple, 20, and Moses, 18, in March 2014 after ten years of marriage.

The high-profile couple described their separation at the time as a ‘conscious uncoupling’ and had their divorce finalised in July, 2016.

Martin was reported to be in an on and off relationship with actress Annabelle Wallis before they split in August, 2017.

He was first seen with Dakota at a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles in October 2017 when they were reported to be ‘cozy, laughing and affectionate’.

Dakota, the daughter Don Johnson, 74, and Melanie Griffith, 67, was spotted a month later at a Coldplay concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina, leading to fans posing social media pictures of her enjoying the show.

The couple were seen out on more dates around Los Angeles in early 2018, including a meal out with friends at Soho House in Malibu.

They were also spotted arm in arm together walking on Malibu beach while spending ‘most of the weekend together’.

But it was nearly a year later that they made their first openly public appearance together at Stella McCartney’s Autumn 2018 Collection show in LA.

Dakota’s father, Don, appeared to confirm his daughter’s relationship with Martin in an interview with Digital Spy when he joked: “Yeah, that’s… uh troubling, isn’t it? No, she’s a big girl, she can handle herself!’

Her actress mother also opened up about Martin during a Global Gift Foundation USA Women’s Empowerment Luncheon, when she said: ‘I adore him!’

Dakota appeared to confirm her relationship with Martin in an interview with Tatler in September 2018 when she said: ‘I’m not going to talk about it, but I am very happy.’

The following November, she is said to have met Paltrow, her new husband Brad Falchuk, and Martin’s children at a Thanksgiving dinner

A source told PEOPLE at the time: ‘They’re a total modern family and had a great time celebrating together.’

The couple were spotted again with Paltrow and Falchuk on the beach in the Hamptons, New York, in August 2019.

Paltrow opened up about her ex-husband’s relationship with Dakota in a 2020 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, describing how the actress had become part of her family.

She said: ‘I love her. I can see how it would seem weird because it’s sort of unconventional. But I think, in this case, just having passed through it iteratively, I just adore her.’

Dakota collaborated with Martin, by directing a video for Coldplay’s track ‘Cry Cry Cry’ in February 2020.

She told Marie Claire that she didn’t get any special treatment because of her relationship, saying: ‘I wrote the story and pitched it to the band like every other director did, and they chose mine – not because they’re partial to me at all.’

There were rumours in December 2020 that the couple had become engaged after pictures showed the actress wearing a large emerald ring on her left hand.

They reportedly moved into a shared home together in Malibu in January 2021.

A source said at the time that she enjoyed living in the beach resort, despite her seeming ‘like more of a city girl’.

‘She seems to enjoy it as much as Chris does… They both love the outdoors and often take beach strolls. They also support local restaurants,’ they said.

The couple enjoyed a holiday together in Majorca in July 2021, and three months later Matin dedicated his song ‘My Universe’ to Dakota, telling the crowd at a London concert: ‘This is about my universe, and she’s here.’

Dakota also spoke of their relationship in December 2021 when she told Elle about their daily routine.

She said: ‘We’ve been together for quite a while, and we go out sometimes, but we both work so much that it’s nice to be at home and be cozy and private… Most of the partying takes place inside my house.’

Barbra Streisand posted a picture of Dakota and Martin in April 2022 when they joined her at a tea party to celebrate her 80th birthday.

In March, last year Martin shared how Dakota had introduced him to SubPacs, a device that allows the hearing impaired to feel the vibrations of a concert.

He said on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast: ‘Dakota, my partner, gave me one as a gift because she saw someone online experiencing whatever they are experiencing with this… It’s kind of like body armour that you put on. It connects to the bass.’

Martin continued: ‘So, we started using it and it’s been so amazing, and it should get better and better. We have ten or twenty now of those packs. So, if you’re hearing impaired, we have an area where you put on the pack and you can feel the show.’

A source confirmed the couple’s engagement in March 8 this year, telling PEOPLE magazine: ‘They got engaged years ago but were in no rush to get married.’

The same source confirmed that Dakota’s emerald ring was in fact an engagement ring.

Dakota was pictured wearing black bike shorts and a black sports bra as she walked her black German Shepherd cross breed dog on a short leash through the lush landscape in the Malibu hills last weekend.

The actress kept her long brown ponytail under control beneath a hat and wore sunglasses to protect her eyes from the glare of the sun.

The Social Network star opened up about having children, in an interview with Bustle in March, saying: ‘How do I feel about motherhood? I’m so open to that.

‘I’ve gotten to this place where I really want to experience everything life has to offer… And especially being a woman, I’m like: “What a magical f***ing thing to do. What a crazy, magical, wild experience”.

‘If that’s meant to happen for me, I’m totally down for it. We’re not here for very long, so if I’m meant to be a mother, bring it on.’