Now learning a bit more about footballers I think what they need to do well, is someone who really wants to stay in the background and just be a strong support.

People became more interested in my love life than in me, and that has a certain effect. You start to feel very empty and worth nothing, you start to become a piece in a board game you never wanted to play.

The doctors say it dates back to a film where I had these huge prosthetic breasts because my character was breast-feeding. The weight of them, and of the baby, did my back in.

Being a mother gives you an incredible feeling of empowerment, you think if I can go through such pain and that level of sleep and still operate and not be grumpy you can do anything. It can be quite scary, you can't function your brain, forget your vocabulary.

Onstage, there's no hiding; you either can or can't act. There's no second take.

There were reports of me using fat-sucking machines and all sorts of silliness. All I did was walk a lot and breast-feed. I've never been on a strict diet. I just don't overeat, and I don't eat if I'm not hungry.

When I was younger I thought I'd meet the man of my dreams, get married and have a child, but it all went higgledy-piggledy. Never say never, though.