Arthur Miller, America's greatest living playwright, once married to Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe, has broken his silence over his partner of two years, a painter 55 years his junior.

Miller met Agnes Barley in the autumn of 2002 at a dinner with mutual friends.

According to a report in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, until now, 89-year-old Miller and 34-year-old Barley, who have been living together for two years, have kept themselves out of the headlines.

They were recently filmed pottering around in the garden of Miller's 340-acre farm in Connecticut, USA, which he bought after marrying Monroe in 1956.

According to the report, the first intimations that Miss Barley might be Miller's girlfriend - she prefers the word partner - came when they were seen at the opening of her exhibition of paintings at a gallery in New York.

Speaking publicly about their relationship for the first time, Barley said, "I'm not naive to the fact that people are curious about us. I feel very lucky."

When she was introduced to the author of After the Fall, The Crucible and Death of a Salesman, "I honestly didn't know Arthur Miller was still living! I thought, 'He's alive?'"

From the moment they began talking, Barley said, "There was a sparkle between us."