Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia were truly the Romeo and Juliet of actors with impossible-to-spell surnames.

That’s right – were. Fans of freaky relationships between teenagers and much, much older – almost inappropriately older – full-grown adult men should probably sit down for this. Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia from Heroes have just split up.

Apparently Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia have split up because they’re ‘in different places’. But at least now Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia can move onto people nearer their own ages – so Madonna‘s adopted African son and the dusty old knight from the end of Indiana Jones 3, then.

If you like Heroes, then… actually, no, wait. Nobody likes Heroes any more, do they? Most people would rather stab themselves in the face with a pen than watch a new episode of Heroes. Let’s start this paragraph again.

If you’re aware of the existence of a television show called Heroes that used to be quite good but quickly turned into a fat sack of animal testes, then you’ll be aware of Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia. Hayden plays the invincible cheerleader Claire, while Milo plays a floppy-haired nutsack whose superpower seems to involve whining a lot.

But even though Heroes is basically unwatchable toss, it provided the perfect environment for love to blossom between Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia. It didn’t matter that she was a teenager and he was a man in his thirties, nor that she played his schoolgirl niece in Heroes, nor that if the relationship had happened a few months earlier he’d be put on some kind of permanent register and chased around everywhere by a violent torch-wielding mob – Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia were in love, and nothing could stop it.

Well, nothing but the yawning age-chasm between them, obviously. Because now it’s emerged that Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia have finally split up. The New York Daily News reports:

“It was a lifestyle conflict,” an insider told Us Weekly magazine, suggesting that the 12-year age gap between Panettiere, 19, and Ventimiglia, 31, may have been a factor in their split. “They were in very different places,” added the source. “[Panettiere] is young. She likes to go out in the Hollywood scene and that’s not his style.” Ventimiglia meanwhile, “has been concentrating on work on his production company.”

Although Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia have remained on friendly terms, the question of how the split will affect Heroes is another matter entirely. We’re particularly looking forward to the future plotline where Peter Petrelli rushes to save Claire from certain death, only for Claire to start laying into him about why he never wants to go to any parties with her and how she should have listened to her mother. Unless that’s already happened. It’s not like we actually watch Heroes, is it?

But at least Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia can move on romantically now. And, what with Hayden’s miraculous ability to instantaneously recover from any injuries she sustains, it looks like she might have a future career lined up as Chris Brown‘s girlfriend.

Oh, alright – allegedly.

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Despite what happens onscreen, the real super-powers that Heroes stars Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia have are grossly unpronounceable surnames and an almost epic level of adorability.

And, like the old saying goes, adorability loves adorability. That's why Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia are totally doing it with each other. That's not exactly news – a relationship between the two of them has been rumoured for months – but with the news that Milo has met Hayden's grandparents, it looks like things have just become official. Sweet, no? So sweet that we're almost able to overlook the fact that Milo Ventimiglia is 30 years and Hayden Panettiere is just 18 and that's a little tiny bit creepy.

Almost.

When you work on a show like Heroes, you get a lot of time to fraternise with your co-stars. That's because the average Heroes episode is made up of 40% babbling on about that virus that nobody cares about, 25% Hiro pulling constipated faces and 58% godawful pseudo-spiritual voiceovers. Since that adds up to 123%, it doesn't leave much for the actors to actually do.

And if you're either Hayden Panettiere or Milo Ventimiglia, that gives you plenty of time to get it on with each other. And break the law in Japan. But mainly get it on with each other. 

Ever since they were spotted canoodling at a concert a few months ago, reports were rife that Hayden Panettiere (the self-repairing low-cut cheerleader) and Milo Ventimiglia (her whining haircut uncle) were a couple, but the lack of an official confirmation and the jolting realisation that he's old enough to be her father meant that nobody really paid much attention to them.

But now it's become unavoidable. A family friend has let slip to People that Milo recently spent time with Hayden's family in New York and everyone loves the adorable floppy-haired bastard:

"Hayden's mom adores Milo. She thinks he's so cute. She tells her friends that he's her boyfriend. She's very proud. He's even met her grandparents. He fits in perfectly with the family. Milo jokes around with her little brother. They're buddies… He really takes care of her, even down to the little things like giving her a back massage and going with her to work things."  

That's a true sign of commitment – going with Hayden to work things. Forget that they both have the same job on the same show at the same time and that him 'going to work things with her' is exactly the same as him 'going to work', that's still sort of sweet.

Since there's still been no official confirmation of Hayden and Milo's relationship, we have no idea about serious they are about each other. We hope it's completely serious, though, because we want nothing more than to see a 30-year-old man from a TV show marry his barely-legal co-star who plays his schoolgirl niece. We're welling up at the very thought of it right now, in fact.

Read more:

Milo Ventimiglia & Hayden Panettiere Are an Item – People