Only a few days after he was injured in a Mississippi car accident, the news has come out that Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman is getting a divorce.

Freeman's attorney and business partner, Bill Luckett, told the Memphis Commercial-Appeal on August 6 that there is a "divorce action pending" between the 71-year-old star and his wife since 1984, costumer Myrna Colley-Lee. Luckett also revealed to Access Hollywood the same day: "For legal and practical purposes, [the couple] have been separated since December of 2007."

Luckett declined to give further details on the divorce but added in his interview with the Commercial-Appeal that Freeman is recovering from his injuries. "He's better," Luckett told the newspaper. Freeman suffered a broken arm, a broken elbow, and shoulder damage in the accident on August 3; he received surgery at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis to repair damage to his left arm and hand as well as to reconnect nerves.

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Also injured in the accident was 48-year-old FedEx employee Demaris Meyer, reportedly a friend of the actor. Luckett strongly denied that there was any romantic link between Freeman and Meyer, telling the Commerical Appeal that they are merely "mutual friends". He added that Meyer is a big supporter of the Ground Zero Blues Club that Freeman owns in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

"She's got a lot of friends," said Luckett. "She brings groups. She's just a wonderful lady. There's no juice there. There ain't any juice."

According to the Associated Press, Meyer shares Freeman's and Colley-Lee's interest in gardening.

This will be Freeman's second divorce. His first marriage, to Jeanette Adair Bradshaw, lasted from 1967 to 1979. He has two sons from previous relationships, one daughter with Colley-Lee, and a stepdaughter via his soon-to-be-ex-wife.

Morgan Freeman began his acting career onstage, both on and off Broadway, in the 1960s. He soon appeared on TV frequently, via the children's educational show The Electric Company and a role on the soap opera Another World. But it wasn't until he was in his 50s that he became a genuine movie star, through acclaimed roles in such films as Glory, Driving Miss Daisy, Unforgiven, The Shawshank Redemption, and Se7en. He won an Academy Award in 2005 for his performance in Million Dollar Baby and has even established himself as one of Hollywood's best-loved narrators, through movies such as War of the Worlds and March of the Penguins.

Freeman is currently on screens worldwide as Lucius Fox in Christopher Nolan's latest Batman hit, The Dark Knight.