PARIS — Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former chief of the International Monetary Fund, has separated from his wife, the journalist Anne Sinclair, according to news reports. French tabloids have speculated about strains on the couple and a possible split for months. ‘‘Ms. Sinclair asked Mr. Strauss-Kahn to leave the apartment a month ago,’’ said Laurence Pieau, editor-in-chief of Closer, a tabloid magazine that on Thursday evening published an article saying the couple had separated.

Strauss-Kahn moved to the elegant hotel Lutetia in central Paris and later to a friend’s place in the residential 16th Arrondissement, Pieau said in a phone interview.

Sinclair had been publicly supportive of her husband after his arrest last year in New York on charges that he sexually assaulted Nafissatou Diallo, a hotel maid.

But French newspapers said their marriage had fallen apart after allegations that Strauss-Kahn had been involved in a prostitution ring centered in the northern French city of Lille. It remains unclear whether the couple have filed for divorce.

NEW YORK TIMES