Bridget Jones is singleton again

The actress Renee Zellweger has annulled her marriage to the country music singer Kenny Chesney, after only four months, it was confirmed yesterday.

The short-lived union was beset with rumours that the couple wed in haste without knowing each other properly. Zellweger, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role as singleton Bridget Jones, listed "fraud" as the reason for the break-up in court papers filed on Wednesday but did not elaborate.

The Texan star also demanded that the court rule out the possibility of financial support for Chesney, who was named entertainer of the year at the 2004 US Country Music Association Awards. Zellweger, 36, and Chesney, 37, married on 9 May in a small ceremony on the Caribbean island of St John in the US Virgin Islands. It was the first marriage for both of them.

The couple met at the Concert of Hope tsunami relief benefit on 15 January, where Chesney was singing and Zellweger was answering telephones. Chesney had admired the actress from a distance years earlier when he noticed her breakthrough role with Tom Cruise in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire. Her words on screen inspired his 1999 hit song, You Had Me at Hello.

The couple have spent just 15 days together since their wedding, and missed their honeymoon because of Chesney's US tour. The marriage was so brief they had not yet lived together. Zellweger appeared alone on the red carpet at the London premiere of Cinderella Man this month, but insisted: "I'm happily married but I don't talk about it because I want to keep my precious things precious."

Friends claim that Tennessee-born Chesney was too controlling and that he had vetoed Zellweger's Ј750,000 plans to redecorate her country home in Connecticut because he thought it was a waste of money, Scotsman reports.