Twitter Quitters: Matt Lucas, Chris Brown, Ashton Kutcher [SLIDESHOW]

British comedian Matt Lucas has become the latest celebrity to quit Twitter after a user made a crude joke about his ex-partner, who committed suicide.

The 37-year-old Little Britain star, who has 565,000 followers, informed his fans that he would be closing his account following the incident.

He wrote: "I appreciate all the support on here over the past couple of years, but it's time to shut down my Twitter account."

His bold move to depart from the micro-blogging site followed a minor online confrontation with a 16-year-old with the username oOfuscoOo, who tweeted a joke about the death of his former partner, Kevin McGee. Lucas's former civil partner was discovered hanged at his flat in 2009.

Lucas initially expressed his disappointment by replying, "Shame on you," before telling the teenager, "I'm not joking. I think you should delete that tweet. It really upset me."

He later added: "I'm disappointed that oOfuscoOo thinks jokes about the suicide of my former partner are funny."

Lucas is not the first celebrity to realise that even though Twitter may be great as a promotional tool or for reaching out to fans, it also comes with a downside.

International Business Times UK takes a look at just a few of the stars who quit the social networking site.