'House' costars Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer called off engagement

Los Angeles (E! Online) - You know what they say about office romances...

House costars Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer, both 28, have called off their engagement, the couple announced Wednesday.

"After much consideration, we have decided not to get married," the duo, who have been an item both on the show and in real life for more than a year, said in a joint statement to People. "We are still very close, and we look forward to continuing to work together on House."

Ironically, their characters on Fox's hit medical drama had finally passed the friends-with-benefits stage and taken the plunge into a real relationship by the end of the third season.

Spencer popped the question over the Christmas holiday last year in Paris, offering up a ring in front of the Eiffel Tower and proposing in French. Morrison told InStyle Weddings last month that at first she didn't understand what her beau was up to.

"I was like, 'Uh, what are you doing?' " recalled Morrison, who also graced the special issue's cover. "He said, 'I'm asking you to marry me in French!' I was just staring at him. I don't speak French. And he said, 'Well, are you going to answer?' And I replied, 'Oh, yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!' "

They had been planning to tie the knot later this year in Los Angeles in front of about 200 of their nearest and dearest. Instead, it looks as if Chase and Cameron will be spending more time staring into a microscope than into each other's eyes. (Morrison and Spencer have dished about their on- and offscreen romance to E! Online's Watch with Kristin.)

Season three ended in May with both doctors seemingly leaving Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital for less curmudgeonly pastures, after Chase was fired and Cameron resigned. But both Morrison and Spencer, as well as Omar Epps, whose Dr. Eric Foreman also supposedly split, are returning to House in the fall, so show runner Dave Shore must have something else in mind for Hugh Laurie's resident trio of consciences.

Nevertheless, when the Emmy-nominated series' fourth season kicks off, the diagnostic wing will be more crowded than usual. Kal Penn, Olivia Wilde, Anne Dudek, Peter Jacobson and Edi Gathegi are all joining the cast as young doctors in competition to join House's team.

House fans can get in the mood before the Sept. 25 premiere by snagging the show's first soundtrack album, due out Sept. 18, featuring Massive Attack, Ben Harper, Gomez, Lucinda Williams, Joe Cocker, previously unreleased tracks from Sarah McLachlan and Elvis Costello, and the Band from TV's cover of the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

The Band from TV is Laurie's group with Heroes star Greg Grunberg, Desperate Housewives' James Denton, Bonnie Somerville from the upcoming ABC dramedy Cashmere Mafia and The Bachelor's Bob Guiney.