I think there's always interest in how the other half live - I see myself as a down-to-earth Essex mum who just happens to be living this very glamorous life in Beverly Hills.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'm happy with the idea of being a mum first and an actress second - I'm perfectly content for people to think of me as a stay-at-home mum, rather than an actress, if that is their perception.
There was a time in my life when I was going in and out of houses that were extraordinarily different - from a working-class terrace in Northampton to the homes of friends who were really very wealthy. It was quite an odd position to be in, I realise looking back, and quite a nice one.
It is interesting to be here and to see that for certain actors they have to live in a way that you think of nobody living anymore except for in small towns. They have such elaborate double lives.
I feel like a semi-single mum.
I think, now that I am a mother, I look at other mums like Jo Pavey and just mums that go back to work and work incredibly hard, and I have so much admiration and appreciation for how hard it is.
It's funny in the U.K., where I'm not really known because I never did a soap. My English cousins in the Lake District think I'm not a real actor because they've never seen me in 'Home and Away' or 'Neighbours.'
In Beverly Hills, it's very spoiled in terms of the quality of life. I think the climate and the space and the quality of life in Beverly Hills is exceptional.
I grew up in a middle class English family just outside London. I wasn't surrounded by that speedy city lifestyle, it was a little mellower.
When Beverly and I got together in 1992, and I moved to be with her in the little round house she'd built in the middle of 20 acres of woods near Amity, I found myself immersed in a natural setting that I responded to with all my being.
I grew up in Essex, and all my life I wanted to live in London - now I do. I feel very privileged to be able to live here.