Billie Piper has opened up about her former marriage to Chris Evans, hailing it as “nurturing” and also “very drunken”.
The former Doctor Who star married the broadcaster when she was 18 and he was 35, and while they divorced three years later in 2007, they have remained good friends.
In an interview with the Guardian, Billie explained how she “loved” her time with Chris and “learned so much” from their relationship, but admitted the media attention they received overshadowed her bid to move from music into acting.
The star, who first found fame at the age of 15 when she released number one single Because We Want To in 1998, said: “I was kind of naive about that next phase of my career, which was useful, because you’re not as scared of rejection. But there was loads of rejection.”
Of the “baggage” she was associated with, she said: “A lot of it was just tabloid fodder, rather than, ‘Oh, she was a pop star.’ It was more, ‘She was a pop star, then she got pissed for five years with an old man.’ I think that was the lasting image when I walked into an audition room.
“Older man. Not old man. He’s an old man now, but then, so am I.”
Billie, who went on to land the part of assistant Rose Tyler in Doctor Who and star in shows such as Secret Diary Of A Call Girl and I Hate Suzie, added of her years with Chris: “Loved it. Loved that time. Learned so much. Really needed it, after the experiences that I’d had, leading up to that point. And I felt like I’d actually found a real friend.
“I guess meeting someone who had experienced [fame] for 20 years, at that level, it was very nurturing. And also very drunken, which I needed. I had a lot of fun during those years.”
After splitting from Chris, Billie went on to marry actor Laurence Fox, with whom she has children Winston, 14, and Eugene, 10.
The couple divorced in 2016, and she is now in a relationship with singer Johnny Lloyd, with whom she has a three-year-old daughter, Tallulah.