Saffron Burrows is alone again

At 6ft with lustrous hair and striking good looks, Saffron Burrows seems to have it all. Desired by men and envied by women, the actress boasts a supportive family, a network of close friends and a portfolio of impressive film and theatre roles. Despite these glittering achievements there is one notable failure in her life: her inability to hold down a long-term relationship.

The actress has now suffered a fresh setback as, according to friends, she has moved out of the modern Islington flat she shared with Mike Figgis, her film director lover of more than three years.

The split is the latest in a string of failed relationships, including one with actor Alan Cumming, which ended when he declared himself "pansexual" and began seeing a man.

The London-born actress is being comforted by fellow thespian, 43-year-old Fiona Shaw, with whom she will star in an adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's The PowerBook at the National Theatre in May.

A friend said: "It's over with Figgis. Fiona has been a real support for Saffron, and the two of them have spent a lot of time together, talking at Fiona's flat in Primrose Hill."

One resident at the apartment block where Burrows used to live - which is also home to other celebrities such as photographer David Bailey - said: "Saffron has not lived here for months now. I see Mike regularly, but he has not been with Saffron for a long while. Everybody is saying that she has left him."

Last night Burrows's New York publicist attempted to play down the split, saying: "They are still friends. They continue to have a close relationship." The London agent for Figgis continued the damagelimitation exercise, adding: "Absolutely, they are good friends."

Good friends they may be, but for the 28-year-old actress, known not only for her roles in Circle Of Friends and Enigma but also for her articulacy and intellect, the failure of yet another serious relationship must come as a devastating blow.

Of all of her failed romances, most have been with actors she met on set.

First, there was a short-lived fling with Daniel Day-Lewis, whom she met in 1993 while playing his girlfriend in In The Name Of The Father.

The relationship wasn't to last, though, and neither was a fling with Spandau Ballet pop star Gary Kemp.

The following year Burrows, then 21, met and fell in love with eccentric Scottish actor Alan Cumming. When she first met

him he was married to another actress, Hilary Lyon, which ended in divorce.

Burrows and Cumming spent 10 weeks together in Ireland filming the love story Circle Of Friends, became lovers and then became engaged.

She said in 1995: "I said I'd never get involved with another actor, I said I'd never marry before my late twenties, but now I'm in love."

Two years later, however, it was all over and Cumming became involved with another man. After that split Burrows sought comfort in the arms of Figgis, whom she first met in 1994 when he was married to Biemchem Ohly, the mother of his two children.

"We weren't together then," said Burrows, "but if you mention it people always get the wrong idea."

By 1999, though, they were a couple, albeit an odd one. With his bushy beard and corkscrew curls, 54-year-old Figgis made an unlikely escort for the statuesque and beautiful young actress. The director of the acclaimed Leaving Las Vegas, starring Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue, Figgis was something of a Svengali for the ambitious actress.

"You can learn an awful lot with someone like Mike," she said, and two years ago the couple set up home together in a smart block of flats in Islington.

Today, however, it is all over and yet again Burrows is alone, wondering where it all went wrong.