Claire’s toughest role? Being a mother!

SHE played a young Queen and is soon to be seen as a scandal-hit aristocrat, but Claire Foy reckons being a mother is as hard as any role she has taken on.

The Crown star, 37, has a daughter Ivy Rose, six, with ex-partner Stephen Campbell Moore and admits: ‘There’s this pressure to be this cake-baking, fun, playing 24-hours-a-day mother, being some sort of vehicle for entertainment, love and food.

‘I’m just prepared to apologise for who I am: “I am so sorry – but you’re lumped with me. This is the hand you’ve been dealt, let’s try to make the best of it.” ’

Miss Foy, who plays society beauty the Duchess of Argyll in upcoming BBC drama A Very British Scandal, made the admission in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK.

For the photoshoot, she wore a Versace wool check miniskirt, jacket and knit top with Miu Miu sequined shoes. She also features on the magazine cover in a more modern Armani royal blue tulle dress and silk stole.

Of the duchess, whose salacious private life was exposed in a notorious 1963 divorce case, Miss Foy said: ‘If the audience judges her in the same way as before, we have defeated the purpose of what this is trying to do. This was a wealthy, privileged woman, pretty spoilt, by her own admission, and pretty questionable as a character. But, in that period it was difficult to get anyone to speak about their emotions, she created a mask.’ Miss Foy will receive the actress prize at the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards tonight. The December issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK is on sale from Friday.