Katie Couric and Entrepreneur Brooks Perlin Split After Five Years

Katie Couric and her boyfriend of five years, Brooks Perlin, have split, People reports.

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Couric and Perlin were "at different stages in their careers," a friend of Couric's said. "The split was inevitable."

The 54-year-old former CBS World News anchor and Perlin, 17 years her junior at 37, met at a fundraising event for cancer research in 2006. Jay Monahan, Couric's husband, died at 42 of colon cancer in 1998. Couric has two daughters: 20-year-old Ellie and 15-year-old Carrie.

The breakup isn't slowing Couric down.

The news personality, who will debut her ABC daytime talker Katie in 2012 and will host the two-hour year-end special The Year, is "just as active and engaged as always," according to the friend, adding that "Brooks is a good guy but there is a time for each relationship -- and the time is past for this one."

Earlier this year, Couric called her relationship with Perlin "complicated."

"I'm in the process of figuring out the future, and so is he," she said at the time.