AceShowbiz - Michael Sheen and Sarah Silverman split up after he decided to return to the U.K. to focus on political causes following the Brexit vote.

The Welsh actor began dating "Wreck-It Ralph" comedienne Sarah in early 2014, while he was living in Los Angeles, but he decided to return home last year (17) to become more politically involved and they eventually parted ways that December.

Sarah announced the news via Twitter in February, and Michael has now opened up about the breakup, explaining that they both needed to be politically active in their respective countries following the vote for Britain to leave the European Union (EU) and the election of U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016.

"We both felt in different ways we wanted to get more involved," he told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper. "That led to her doing her show 'I Love You, America' (in which Silverman interviewed people from across the political spectrum), and it led to me wanting to address the issues that I thought led some people to vote the way they did about Brexit, in the area I come from and others like it."

"We both had very similar drives, and yet to act on those drives pulled us in different directions - because she is American and I'm Welsh. I felt a responsibility to do something, but it (meant) coming back (to Britain) - which was difficult for us, because we were very important to each other. But we both acknowledge that each of us had to do what we needed to do."

When she opened up about their split on Twitter in February, the 47-year-old actress, who had met Michael on the set of his TV show "Masters of Sex", explained to her fans, "We just live in different countries & it got hard."

Michael had moved to Los Angeles in the early 2000s with his then-partner Kate Beckinsale and remained there following their split for the sake of their daughter Lily, but the 19-year-old relocated to New York last year to go to college.