Amanda Abbington ‘getting close’ to The Fall actor

Amanda Abbington has been spotted "getting close" to actor Jonjo O’Neill.

The 42-year-old actress and Martin Freeman – who share 10-year-old son Joe and eight-year-old daughter Grace – announced their split last week after 16 years together and the ‘Sherlock’ actress was recently spotted enjoying drinks in a London pub with the ‘Fall’ star.

A source told The Sun: "They were with another male friend for a couple of hours and left about 8pm. She had her hand on her man’s thigh and they seemed pretty close.

"People recognized her but she didn’t seem to care who saw. It was quite clear she’d split from Martin. They were very close."

Meanwhile, Amanda recently insisted that she and Martin will always "remain best friends".

She said: "Martin and I remain best friends and love each other, and it was entirely amicable.

"There was no hostility, really, we just said that we couldn’t live together anymore, so we put everything in place, he moved out to a flat in north London, I stayed at home and we’ve started a new chapter.

"It is sad and it is upsetting, because you think you’re going to be with someone forever, but you either do that or you break up, and we both came to the decision that splitting was best for us. We’ve been really lucky to make it such a clean break, especially for the kids."

Amanda cited the 45-year-old actor’s hectic schedule as one of the reasons for their split, as his heightening demand as a Hollywood star meant the ‘Mr Selfridge’ actress got used to being "separate" from him.

She added: "You can’t be away from people for too long, because you start to function on your own, and you get used to being separate [from] the person you’re supposed to be with. You lose that connection and lose sight of it, in the end."

Meanwhile, the pair are set to star together in upcoming fourth series of ‘Sherlock’ – which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular detective – as John Watson and his wife Mary.