He tries to keep his private life and public life 'separate' (from each other). = He tries to keep his private life 'separate' from his public life.
('US') He fell and 'separated' [='dislocated'] his shoulder. [=caused the bone in his shoulder to move out of its proper position]
The competition has been easy to this point, but now it gets tough and we'll really begin to 'separate the men from the boys'.
(..) of himself in me. We were like strangers who knew each other very well. In telling the story of my father's life... ...it's impossible to separate fact from fiction, the man from the myth. The best I can do is to tell it the way he told me. It doesn't always make sense, (..)2003 Big Fish