She recently broke up with her long-term boyfriend, N'Sync singer Justin Timberlake, and at the same time has had to cope with her parents separating.

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The government has set up a website app to help separating parents work together to minimise the impact of their break up on their children and avoid the courts - ' Sorting Out Separation' - has already been visited by 40, 000 parents.

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Challenges of time and distance appear to have affected the modern family, with an average of 81.4 miles separating respondents from their parents.

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