Robert De Niro is set to star in an advert for bread.

Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro

The 75-year-old actor - who reportedly recently split from his wife Grace Hightower after two decades of marriage - is set to fly into the UK this weekend to film a new commercial for Warburtons bread.

A source told The Sun newspaper: "Warburtons absolutely love getting big names to front their adverts and they don't come much bigger than De Niro. They've set the bar higher than ever."

Robert follows in the footsteps of Peter Kay and Sylvester Stallone, who have previously promoted the bread brand.

Meanwhile, it was claimed earlier this week that Robert had split from his spouse and a formal announcement from the pair is expected in the coming weeks.

A source told the New York Post's Page Six column: "They are not living together at this time."

Whilst an insider added to People magazine: "Sometimes things don't work out the way you hope or want them to."

Robert and Grace tied the knot in 1997 after 10 years of dating. However, the couple went through a bit of a rocky patch two years into their marriage, which saw Robert file for divorce, but he later pulled the papers. The couple also renewed their wedding vows 14 years ago, joined by their good friends including Meryl Streep, Ben Stiller and Martin Scorsese.

Robert is notoriously private about his relationship with Grace but the pair are outspoken about their belief that their son's autism is linked to vaccinations.

Explaining how Grace believes the teenager "changed overnight" after being vaccinated as a child, Robert said: "The vaccines are dangerous to certain people who are more susceptible. Nobody seems to want to address that, or they say they've addressed it and it's a closed issue but it doesn't seem to be. There are many people who will come out and say I saw my kid change overnight. I saw what happened, I should have done something and I didn't. There's more to this than meets the eye, believe me."