Billie Piper has admitted co-parenting her two children with Laurence Fox comes with “enormous difficulty” in rare comments about their divorce.
The British actress, 41, has been largely coy about her divorce from actor-turned-political activist Fox in 2016, after a nine-year relationship.
Fox, a self-professed “anti-woke” campaigner, has found himself in the middle of several high-profile controversies in recent years – one of his most recent ones leading to his suspension by GB News over “misogynistic” comments he made on air about a female journalist.
Piper has admitted co-parenting her two children aged 11 and 15 with Fox amid such controversies comes “with enormous difficulty” in an interview with British Vogue.
“I’ve had to make some choices and a divorce speaks for itself. Or at least it should,” she said.
The former Doctor Who star said Fox’s family, including his sister Lydia Fox and her husband the comedian Richard Ayoade, “might have a more interesting take” on him than she did.
Pic: PA
“What is paramount for me is the privacy and anonymity of my children,” she said. “They deserve not to be extensions of the parents and to forge their own identities.”
British Vogue said the interview with Piper, published online on 15 March, took place days before a High Court judge ruled Fox had libelled two people when he referred to them as “paedophiles” on social media.
Asked what she does when such dramas arise with Fox, Piper said: “I close everything down and keep a very strict routine with the kids so that there’s consistency. I keep them close. That’s all I can do.”
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She implied she asks her friends and family to avoid telling her about Fox, adding: “I try to keep people from telling me stuff but it’s really, really hard.
“I don’t read it but everyone wants to talk about it. Sometimes I have to say to people: ‘Please don’t bring this to me, now or ever’.”
Encouraging herself to find a “positive” to conclude on, she told the interviewer: “It’s made me feel stronger in many ways. I’ve learnt I have a lot of resilience I didn’t know I had.
“I’ve had to learn the hard way that you can only control yourself and how you react to things. It’s really f***ing hard. I hate that.”