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A representative for Miley Cyrus announced, “Liam and Miley have agreed to separate at this time.”

The couple who wed in December 2018 have decided to call it quits less than a year after tying the knot.

“Ever-evolving, changing as partners and individuals, they have decided this is what’s best while they both focus on themselves and careers. They still remain dedicated parents to all of their animals they share while lovingly taking this time apart. Please respect their process and privacy,” added the representative.

Rumours of the breakup started when 26-year-old Cyrus and 29-year-old Hemsworth began on Saturday after the Mother’s Daugter singer uploaded a photo of herself on Instagram in which she is not wearing her wedding ring.

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The photo shows Cyrus sitting in a chair while wearing a black bustier top with matching pair of black pants and the caption: “Mute me if you don’t want SPAMMED.”

She is also seen wearing multiple bracelets and necklaces but no wedding ring in sight.

Brandi Cyrus, her older sister, commented, “Boooooooooooooom!” on the photo.

The photo was taken while Cyrus holidayed with Brody Jenner’s ex Kaitlynn Carter in Italy, a trip which took place just one week after PEOPLE magazine confirmed Carter’s split from Jenner after a year of marriage.

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Carter posted a photo of the pair joined by two friends while sailing around Lake Como.

She later posted a snap of the pair wearing sexy swimsuits.

While Carter wrote in the caption, “rock the boat, don’t rock the boat baby ⚓,” her ex Jenner, 35, commented, “Hot girl summer ?.”

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Cyrus opened up earlier this summer about how she doesn’t “fit into a stereotypical wife role.”

“I think it’s very confusing to people that I’m married. But my relationship is unique,” Cyrus told Elle for its August 2019 cover story, adding that the details of their love life are something she chooses to keep private.

“I don’t know that I would ever publicly allow people in there because it’s so complex, and modern, and new that I don’t think we’re in a place where people would get it,” she said. “I mean, do people really think that I’m at home in a f—ing apron cooking dinner? I’m in a hetero relationship, but I still am very sexually attracted to women.”

Cyrus added: “People become vegetarian for health reasons, but bacon is still f–ing good, and I know that. I made a partner decision. This is the person I feel has my back the most. I definitely don’t fit into a stereotypical wife role. I don’t even like that word.”

Cyrus and Hemsworth first met in 2009 starring in Nicholas Sparks’ romantic drama The Last Song and they went through a rocky on-again, off-again relationship for years before Hemsworth proposed in 2012.

The pair ended their engagement and broke up a year later before reconciling in 2015.

They were committed to each other for years but neither were too concerned about actually getting married.

However, that all changed in December 2018 when they wed during an intimate ceremony at their home in Franklin, Tennessee.

The couple became closer than ever when their beloved Malibu home burned down the previous months during the California wildfires.

“The timing for their wedding makes perfect sense. They, like many others, endured a painful loss which deepened their bond,” a friend of the singer told PEOPLE after the pair got married.

“They don’t have doubts about their relationship,” a Cyrus source added. “They both wanted to get married. They have both matured a lot, and it seemed like the perfect time for them to get married.”