Tipper and Al Gore

Nashville, Tenn. ? Al Gore once claimed his romance with wife Tipper inspired the novel “Love Story” and the couple shared an uncomfortably long kiss before millions on the stage of the Democratic National Convention.

Now, after a 40-year marriage that survived the near-death of a child and the heartache of losing the disputed 2000 presidential election, the former high school sweethearts are calling it quits.

“After a great deal of thought and discussion, we have decided to separate,” the Gores wrote in an e-mail to friends on Tuesday. “This is very much a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together.”

Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider confirmed the statement came from the Gores, but declined to comment further.

The Gores told friends they “grew apart” after four decades of marriage and there was no affair involved, according to two longtime close associates and family friends.

The couple had carved out separate lives over time, with the 62-year-old former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate on the road frequently, said the associates, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the couple’s behalf.

“Their lives had gotten more and more separated,” one of the friends said.

The couple, who own homes in Nashville and Gore’s hometown of Carthage, Tenn., had reportedly purchased an $8.8 million estate in Montecito, Calif., this spring.

Married on May 19, 1970, at the National Cathedral in Washington, the Gores crafted an image of a happy couple during his eight-year stint as vice president in the 1990s and a presidential candidate in 2000.