Friel Life - Playing mum has made me broody...

Anna Friel worried she might never have kids… until she cradled a newborn baby on the set of her new TV drama – by Olivia Buxton

Spending a month on location with a seven-week-old baby girl has convinced Anna Friel that she wants children of her own. Anna plays new mum Claire Ryan in ITV1’s adaptation of Marian Keyes’ bestselling novel Watermelon. And filming with her tiny Irish co-star, Siocha Walsh, has made her maternal instincts kick in big time.

“I’ve always loved kids and planned on having them, but nothing prepared me for how broody I felt after working with Siocha”, coos the 26-year-old. “If all babies were like Siocha, I’d have 10, I’m sure. Creating a new life is one of the most wonderful things anyone can ever do”.

But at one point in her life, former Brookside actress Anna – who lives with 39-year-old actor David Thewlis – feared she may never be able to have children. Just over two years ago she collapsed in agony on the film set of Me Without You and was rushed to hospital for an emergency operation after suffering a burst ovarian cyst.

“It was all very dramatic and frightening,” she recalls. “The whole thing was a terrible shock. An ovarian cyst had burst and my stomach filled with blood. I lost two litres of blood and had to have two transfusions. The doctors managed to save my ovaries but they said that to stand a chance of ever having kids I must conceive within the next five years, ideally before I’m 30”.

Then, after her hospital admission, doctors discovered Anna was suffering from the womb condition known as endometriosis, which affects the Fallopian tubes and makes it difficult for women to become pregnant. However meeting Siocha’s mother, 25 year old Catherine Walsh, helped to allay Anna’s fears.

“Catherine told me she had endometriosis, but she had no problem conceiving,” she says. “It made me realise I shouldn’t stress too much. If it happens, it happens. I have to let nature take its course”.

Meanwhile, Anna makes no secret of the fact she’d love to marry boyfriend David, who has been busy writing, directing and starring in the film Cheeky.

This has been her longest relationship since a two-and-a-half year romance with Darren Day ended in March 1997, after which she briefly dated Robbie Williams and was linked with Chris Evans.

“I know I’m with the man I’ll marry”, she admits. “But there’s no need to rush”.

Once a familiar face on the showbiz party circuit, Anna now spends her time between homes in Windsor and London. But this doesn’t mean she’s become boring!

“When I am with David we do go out for dinner but equally we like our nights in front of the TV. I do like to stay in more, but I hate all this talk of me becoming a housewife. I’m not. I can still go out and sink a pint of Guinness along with the rest of the lads. I don’t see anything wrong in letting my hair down.”

Last year Anna got through the auditions for Gangs of New York and started working with Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, before being pipped at the post by Cameron Diaz. But that setback hasn’t dampened her enthusiasm.

“I’ve been very lucky in my career so far”, she explains. “I’ve worked practically non-stop for the past 10 years since joining Brookside and it has paid off. I might have had a few women’s problems with my health but I really can’t complain. I’ve got a lovely family and fantastic boyfriend who I know will be there to support me whatever happens. That’s what really matters to me”.

In Watermelon – a romantic comedy that involves one woman, two lovers and a pregnancy – petite Anna had to be padded out for her role with a prosthetic tummy to make her look pregnant. She says: “I had a lot of padding to make me look huge. My character Claire thinks she looks like a watermelon because her ankles, her face, every part of her body it seems, have become bloated in her pregnant state”.

After all her recent health scares, such a predicament in the not too distant future is unlikely to worry Anna.