When did you first discover that you were pregnant?

When I was filming Pavilions in America [a psychological thriller, set during the American civil war and co-starring Richard Chamberlain, due for release early next year]. We were filming on an island, just off Cape Fear in the Atlantic Ocean and I started to feel a bit dicky. I was staying in this beach house and every morning I'd see dolphins in the sea - it was such a weird juxtaposition, to be surrounded by this wonderful scenery and be vomiting in the sand dunes. It didn't help that I had to wear a corset for my part, which was pulling on my waist and making me feel even more nauseous. It was the most remote place and there were no means for me to get all the things that are supposed to help with morning sickness. I didn't want anyone to know I was pregnant, so I just said I had a tummy bug.

What was your first reaction and how did you break the news to Liam?

It was so wonderful to find out that I was pregnant - it was something Liam and I had been hoping would happen. I got pregnant pretty quickly - it hadn't happened that fast with James [Patsy's seven-year-old son with her former husband, the Simple Minds frontman, Jim Kerr]. I worked out that I must have conceived the baby while I was filming on the Isle of Man, when Liam was with me. I had to tell Liam that I was pregnant over the phone - he was really over the moon.

Why did you refuse to publicly confirm the pregnancy for so long?

We were really annoyed when the story came out in the newspapers so early on in my pregnancy. The first three months are incredibly fragile, and I didn't want to tell James until I thought the pregnancy was established. But a few people knew about it and somehow it got out. Liam and I denied it for a long time because it's no one else's business. In the end I had to tell my son sooner than I wanted to because I didn't want him to find out from someone else. He was thrilled to hear he's going to have a little brother or sister.

How is the pregnancy progressing?

I'm six months pregnant and I've only lust stopped feeling ill - and it was all day sickness, not just in the morning. It's been very different from my first pregnancy. With James, I had 12 weeks of sickness and then it stopped, literally overnight. I'm beginning to wonder whether this baby is a girl because I'm feeling so different.

So you don't know the sex of the baby?

It's not that we didn't want to know the sex, but every time we've been for a scan, the baby was in the wrong position, and now we've got to the stage where we're not bothered about knowing. I will tell you the names we've chosen because that way we can put our stamp on them - if it's a girl, she'll be Grace, and if it's a boy, we'll call him Lennon, after John Lennon - that's Liam's choice.

Has Liam been very supportive to you during your pregnancy?

Yes, he's been 100 per cent involved in the whole thing He's come to every single doctor's appointment with me. In fact, he even flew back from the south of France, where he was recording, just so he could be there for the scan. Liam has been wonderful with James, but this is his first child so he's really excited.

You'll be giving birth at the Portland Hospital in London [where Victoria Adams gave birth to Brooklyn] - what sort of birth are you planning to have?

Liam and James will both be there at the birth. It would be wonderful to think that I could have a natural birth, but I want it to be as pain free as possible, so I'll probably have an epidural. According to the scan which I had at the five-month stage, it's going to be quite a big baby! James's birth was very long and arduous - I was in labour for 18 and a half hours, and I was very sick throughout. I'm trying to help myself by keeping in shape - I've been going to the gym regularly, I'm having acupuncture once a week, and I do yoga as well.

And now your sister-in-law Meg Mathews [the wife of Liam's brother Noel] is pregnant as well...

Yes. I'm so happy for Meg and Noel. They'll be really brilliant parents and it'll be great for our babies to be so close in age.

James has only rarely been photographed. Do you plan to keep the new arrival out of the sight too?

I'm pathological about keeping James out of the papers and the same rule applies for this baby. When the Rugrats movie came out we were invited to a celebrity screening and James desperately wanted to go but I wouldn't take him because if I did that. I couldn't really turn around and refuse to allow him to be photographed. So he had to wait until it was on at the cinema. I don't want to saddle James with the stigma of being the child of celebrity parents because when you're at school, all you want is to be like your friends. Every kid goes through a stage of being embarrassed by their parents. I just want him to be able to fit in.

Do you think Liam will make a good father?

I know he will. He's been wonderful with James. When I was filming Pavilions, Liam looked after James and he comes to parent teacher evenings with me.

What do you think will be your approach to bringing up your new child - will you be strict or easy going?

I'm bringing James up to respect other people and to respect himself. He's a very polite little boy and he's having a normal childhood, which is the most important thing. My childhood was very different because I acted from the age of four and was put into an adult world at a very young age. I loved acting and for me it was a wonderful opportunity. It changed my life and I'll be eternally grateful to my mum for that - not that she was a pushy stage mum at all. I came from a poor family, my dad was in and out of prison the whole time and I managed to get myself out of the area we lived in and paid for myself to go to a convent school and I did acting in the school holidays. But if you asked me 'Would I let my child do the same thing?' I'd say, 'No way!' The thing about being in such an adult world as a child is that you're seeking approval all the time, you're frightened to speak your mind, you're competing for work and dealing with rejection at a young age - and that's just not healthy.

With all the press interest in you and Liam, are you able to lead a 'normal' life?

Yeah, of course. Our lives are the antithesis of how people imagine them to be. There are always photographers outside the house but we don't go out much, we really don't - only occasionally, for dinner. We stay at home, watch TV, read. Liam and I both do a lot of traveling with our jobs, but we try not to spend more than two weeks apart because after that, the strain really starts to show. I've been on location for the past six months and Liam spent four months traipsing round with me when I was filming. Similarly, I've gone on tour with him in the past. We have a few friends, but not many - it's never really worked for us when we're part of a crowd, it's not good for our relationship.

Did you resent the way you were forced to postpone your wedding in 1997 because of media intrusion?

Liam and I were right to call the wedding off because the media were turning it into something so awful, so tacky. We woke up one morning and my son came into my room and got into bed with us, like he always does, and said, 'Mummy, there's people outside the house.' I looked through the curtain and they were broadcasting The Big Breakfast! Liam and I were meant to be getting married a week later and we just turned round to each other and said, 'I don't think so, this is just not on.' So we just called it off. A few weeks later, we managed to go off and get married quietly at 7.30 in the morning, with just our builder and my hairdresser as witnesses. Afterwards, Liam and I went to Blakes hotel on our own, had a fry-up and a bottle of champagne for breakfast and spent the day together, just the two of us. It was fantastic. It was our special day, we did it our way and we didn't compromise ourselves..

Do you get fed up with all the stories in the papers about you and Liam?

There are countless stupid stories written about us. Liam and I don't buy any of the papers any more, not even the broadsheets. We haven't had them in the house for nearly three years. However philosophical you are, there's no way you can start your day off by reading something really nasty about yourself and not be affected by it. I've had it for years and years and no matter how used to it you are, it can still start eating away at you. The thing with Liam and our relationship is that in the beginning, we were both incredibly insecure about being with each other and, like anybody, we had our ups and downs. Unfortunately, we had a couple of rows that were made very public and from that moment on, people have seen our relationship as being like that, even though we could be happily married for the next 40 years. But it isn't like that, it really isn't.

How do you feel about press reports which claimed you were only interested in getting romantically involved with musicians?

I must say in my own defence that Dan Donovan, [son of the late photographer Terence Donovan] my first husband, was a photographer. I met him when I was 16 and he was assisting for the likes of Irving Penn and David Bailey. He was my first proper boyfriend and I was crazy about him. He played keyboards as well and started doing stuff with Big Audio Dynamite and then that side of his career evolved. But now legend has it that Dan was a rock musician, which I find so funny. I was very young when we got married and the relationship didn't work out. But Dan is still a special person to me and we're really good friends. He's always been there for me. After Dan, I had a few different boyfriends - one of whom owned a grocer's shop in Notting Hill Gate, another one was involved in the film business, nothing to do with the music industry at all. Then I met Jim Kerr, and we started going out - that was a very whirlwind relationship and we got married very quickly, and OK, he was a musician.

Do you regret your first two marriages?

God no! I wouldn't have had James if I hadn't met Jim. And Dan is just a great guy. There was never a drop of animosity between us, ever.

How did your relationship with Liam start to develop?

I've never really talked about this, but for a long time Jim and I weren't living together. We were leading separate lives, but were very supportive of each other because of James. I had a couple of boyfriends in that time, and then I met Liam. I didn't think that our relationship would happen. It was a mad time for both of us - I was a big fan of the band, and I thought he would never be interested in me, and in a way, he felt the same. That always shocks me - that's why our relationship started off in a very insecure way. The pair of us were very unsure of each other and that's obviously not a great way to start a relationship. And here we are four years later just getting on with it!

In public, Liam is quite a colourful character. Away, from the cameras, do you see a different side to him?

I do know a different person, but I think he chooses to be that other person in public. I was saying earlier that reading things in the press can affect me but I can honestly say that Liam genuinely doesn't care what people say about him. You couldn't be as provocative as he's chosen to be and then have this side that just crumbles in private. He really doesn't give a toss. He believes in himself as a singer and I've got 100 per cent respect for him for that. He's calmed down a lot since I first met him. He's cut right down on his drinking and he's changed his life a lot - it really suits him.

Do you feel that you and Liam will still be together when you're 80?

Yes, that's certainly the idea! He's my soulmate and we're very close. It always sounds really gooey when you say things like that but our relationship does actually work very well.

Are you quite an even-tempered person?

I can scream and shout with the best of them! That's one of the misconceptions about me - that I'm this long-suffering person. It's not true at all. But I've got a child so there has to be a semblance of tranquility at home. I was very unhappy for a long time after my mum died, and I had to work on myself. I needed to stop looking for somebody to love me the way my mother did - only then could I start letting other people love me. But she was a hard act to follow. Poor Liam - we got together, I already had a child, I'd just lost the most important person in my life, and I'm looking to him to become everything to me. The guy was 23 when we met, it was just so unrealistic. I had to sort myself out, and that's what I have done. That love that my mother and I shared was an amazing thing - it's like the love that I have for my son. I almost feel now as if I had to lose my mother because if I'd had both her and James, there would have been too many riches in my life. Now I'm a totally different person to how I was even 18 months ago. I'm very settled and calm in my life now and I know exactly what I want to do, both personally and professionally. I'm very focused and I feel good about everything.

Tell me about the cancer scare that you had last year.

I was filming Janice Beard: 45 wpm [a British comedy, which will receive its world I premiere at this year's Edinburgh Festival], last autumn when I found a lump which was right on my chest bone. My mother died of breast cancer - she was first diagnosed with the disease when I was five, and she was in and out of remission throughout my whole life. I know that if you detect a lump anywhere on your body. You must act on it immediately, but, even knowing as much about cancer as I do and having lived through all of my mother's treatments, I still didn't go to see the doctor as soon as I found the lump. I was really afraid and I kept putting it off. I didn't tell anyone about it except Liam and he was obviously worried sick. I wasn't feeling good, I constantly had colds and I lost a lot of weight, but I was so immersed in my work that I pushed it to the back of my mind. It was very stupid of me. Eventually, about two or three months after I'd first discovered the lump. I went to see my mother's consultant, and she was just like 'I can't believe that you've left this so long!' She immediately sent me for a biopsy at a clinic in London. Naturally. I didn't want the story to be splashed all over the newspapers, but even so, there was all this press speculation that I was going into the clinic for rehabilitation, rather than for any medical reason! Just before I got the biopsy results. Liam took me off to Venice for a romantic weekend, where I got food poisoning after eating oysters. I got so ill that my glands swelled up and I was rushed straight to hospital in Venice. I thought, 'My God, this is it, I'm going to die here'. The doctors were totally amazing though. When I got home, I got the results of the biopsy - and thank God it turned out to he a benign cyst. They had to remove the whole thing and it turned out to be the size of a ping-pong ball! To come through all that and then to get pregnant was a real achievement for me.

Who is your best friend?

The actress Elizabeth Hurley is my oldest and closest friend - we've known each other since I was 18 and we did a movie together She's going to be godmother to the baby. Whenever we're arranging to meet up, we always say, 'Shall we go to a restaurant?' but we usually end up going round to each other's houses so that we can be girlie and misbehave! We speak on the phone wherever it is that we are in the world and she is totally supportive and really wonderful.

Is there anything that could make you happier?

Just to have a healthy baby and to have good health myself - I'm terrified of getting sick. I used to be so afraid of dying, it was something that just really plagued me. But after watching my mum die, I'm not afraid of death any more, I'm just afraid of being sick because she was so ill towards the end. But right now my life is really flourishing, both privately and professionally, and I really couldn't be any happier than I am.

• OK Articles & Interviews - index

c 2000 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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