Billy Bob ThorntonBilly Bob Thornton has denied reports that he’s involved in the breakdown of David Duchovny and Tea Leoni’s marriage.

Tea is said to have received a number of explicit text messages from the actor after getting to know him on the set of their new film Manure and he recently described her as “maybe my new favourite person in the world”.

However a spokesperson for the Bad Santa actor insists that the couple are just “friends”.

David and Tea separated over the summer but only announced their split this week after David left rehab for sex addiction treatment.