A 27-year-old British bachelor and a Californian actress who got engaged in the finale of a US TV dating show have split up, the couple have said.

Matt Grant, the first Briton to star on ABC's The Bachelor, chose blonde 22-year-old Shayne Lamas in May after six weeks of rigorous dates, but the couple have now ended their troubled relationship.

It marks the end of 10 out of the 11 couples formed in 12 seasons of the series, not including bachelor Brad Womack who chose no-one, saying he was not ready for a relationship.

Mr Grant, of Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, said the pair would remain close friends.

In a joint statement to the US showbiz website People.com, the couple said:

"We tried hard to make it work but we realised that we were both heading in different directions. We truly care about each other and will remain close friends."

The separation comes a month after Mr Grant moved out of Miss Lamas's home in Century City, Los Angeles, citing a need for "space".

Talking about the pitfalls of reality TV dating, Delaina Dixon, a celebrity and TV writer with OK magazine in the US, said:

"It's such a fantasy, going on these glamorous dates to shows, to the Bahamas, and all in such a short space of time too."

"It's a passionate, intense and amazing experience. But they're falling in love with the idea of being in love, rather than the person."

"When they come out of the fantasy, and start to ask the pertinent questions they should have been asking all along, they realise they're just not as compatible as they thought."

She added that real-life was "not all champagne and roses", unlike the six weeks the couple spent together filming the series.