Well Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt have separated, and Heidi’s rep made the announcement late on a Friday afternoon just like any other “celebrity” couple hoping to minimize publicity and be fashionable. To briefly recap their marital history, Heidi and Spencer held a commitment ceremony in Mexico in November, 2008. They then held a lavish wedding in April, 2009 that was also filmed for their reality show, The Hills. The two received plenty of flack for the fact that their first wedding was not legally binding, (and for a follow up civil ceremony that was also faked) but they reportedly got a license and made it official the second time around.

In the past few weeks, we’ve heard plenty of rumblings that Heidi and Spencer’s marriage of just a year was in trouble. The stories have centered around Spencer’s controlling and increasingly erratic behavior and included US Weekly’s cover story two weeks ago “The Battle for Heidi: She’s Brainwashed.” It’s hard to separate fact from fiction with this couple, who seem more concerned with earning headlines than with how they’re perceived by the public. The breakup rumors seem real though, and I believed the stories that Spencer was going off the deep end. These two are just not decent enough actors to pull off a scheme that complicated. And now they’re breaking up – maybe. It sounds like a half-assed announcement.

Heidi Montag has separated from husband Spencer Pratt, TMZ has learned.

Heidi’s rep tells TMZ, “Heidi is looking to move out due to all the fake bad press that Spencer controls. She’s tired of it and is looking for a place and wants to focus on her acting career.”

We’re told Heidi — pictured here in Malibu last Friday — is looking for a new place to live … in Malibu.

As TMZ first reported, Heidi and Spencer called the police on Heidi’s mom a few weeks back … so there’s been plenty of turmoil.

A source close to Heidi and Spencer tells TMZ the tension in the relationship has been building for a while now … “It wasn’t just a sudden thing.”

Now it makes sense … On Tuesday, Heidi tweeted, “I am not Heidi Pratt, I am Heidi Montag.”

[From TMZ]

I want to know – is Heidi looking to move out of that trashed house she’s renting with Spencer or has she already moved out? You don’t announce a serious separation if you’re just looking to move out. People is reporting this as unconfirmed, and it sounds like Heidi is dissatisfied but not ready to leave the relationship yet. Whether she’s breaking free, looking for some publicity or a little of both remains to be seen. Neither of them seem that right in the head, which made me think they were perfect for each other. They just each got crazy in incompatible ways. Spencer got into some kind of healing crystal/military kick while Heidi thinks all her problems can be solved with surgical procedures that render her unrecognizable. When they were both superficially pretty and fame-seeking it worked, though.