Singer-turned-actor Billie Piper on her turbulent past and becoming the woman she is today
WORDS: ARIANA LONGSON. PHOTOS: GETTY, NETFLIX, SHUTTERSTOCK
It’s been over 25 years since Billie Piper took the music industry by storm at just 15 years old, becoming the youngest singer to enter the UK Singles Chart at No.1 with Because We Want To.
The years that followed were turbulent, to say the least, and the star knows a thing or two about navigating the highs and lows of fame and the challenges of living a ‘mind-blowing’ life in the public eye. Her Las Vegas wedding aged 18 to a then 35-year-old Chris Evans – who she today insists is ‘one of the good guys’ – and her whirlwind noughties lifestyle made headline after headline. But looking back, Billie, now 41, admits, ‘[I] loved that time. Learned so much. Really needed it, after the experiences that I’d had, leading up to that point.’
These days, actor Billie says fame is ‘the most toxic part’ of her job, not least because of the interest in her second – now former – husband and father of her two sons, Laurence Fox. But despite that, in new interviews with Grazia and British Vogue, the star of Netflix’s Scoop has opened up about co-parenting with the controversial activist, her varied career and her ‘unhinged’ past.
The actor called time on her marriage with Laurence, 45, in 2016 after nine years. But his headline-grabbing opinions make it almost impossible for Billie to escape him.
‘I don’t want to talk about Laurence,’ she admits, before explaining, ‘I resent that because we’ve been separated for almost 10 years.’ Until now, Billie has remained largely silent about her ex, barring an intervention last year where she admitted fearing that her children ‘were no longer safe in her house’ in the wake of his inflammatory activism.
But in a bid to draw a line in the sand once and for all, she says, ‘I’ve had to make some choices and the divorce speaks for itself.’
Protective mother
The mum of three, who welcomed daughter Tallulah in 2019 with musician Johnny Lloyd, continues, ‘What is paramount for me is the privacy and anonymity of my children. They deserve not to be extensions of the parents and to forge their own identities.’ She explains, ‘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.’
As for looking out for herself, Billie says, ‘Of course I have feelings, I’m not
