Friel’s secret to looking young: get an early night
THE secret to ageing well is going to bed at 8pm, according to Anna Friel.
The 40-year-old former Brookside actress said few women realised the lifestyle choices that Hollywood stars had to make to remain youthful.
“I think it’s important for real women to know that there are personal trainers involved and [looking like that] probably means no carbs, or just a few in the morning, and going to bed at eight or nine,” she said.
“It’s a massive discipline and you have to ask yourself; ‘Is that the life I want?’ I want a happy medium.”
Friel added that despite her agent’s pleas, she would not return to America to work because it would mean her daughter Gracie, 11, would not be able to see her father.
She said: “I just love being a mum. My agents would love me to go back there [to America] but you choose a career in America or you take your child away from their father.
“I had to sacrifice that. It gets harder because I can’t just accept jobs that are in England.” Her former partner, the actor David Thewlis, lives nearby, but pays only for school fees and a nanny, Friel said.
“I pay the rest. I’ve always been independent and financially supported myself since I was 16.
“It’s meant that I can be in relationships, or not be in them, because of love rather than need,” she said.
“I’m still friends with all my exes. We don’t see each other as much, but you have to be grown-up about these things.”
Dating is something you “just get on with”, she said. “It’s not at all romantic, it’s more; ‘let’s see how this goes’.”
Friel said ageing has made her a “bit more grounded and a little wiser”.
“Before, there was an element of ‘I don’t deserve it’ or ‘I’m not good enough.’ Now I don’t waste my time on that negative energy.”
An actress for 27 years, she will star in BBC One’s new drama Broken in May.
The full interview appears in the May issue of Red magazine, which is on sale April 4.