Billie Piper on Married Life With Chris Evans: ‘I Was A Pop Star And Then I Drank With An Old Man For Five Years’
Billie Piper has described her alcoholic marriage to Virgin Radio DJ Chris Evans as “being drunk with an old man for five years”.
The former child star said she had a lot of “baggage” to deal with when she switched to acting after her pop career fizzled out after marrying Evans, then 35, in 2001 when she was 18. “A lot of it was just just tabloid,” she told the Guardian.
“Instead of ‘Oh, she was a pop star,’ it was more like, ‘She was a pop star, then she got screwed with an old man for five years.’ I think that was the lasting image when I walked into an audition room.’
The couple separated when she was 21 and divorced in 2007 but remained close friends, she says, hailing their relationship as a happy experience.
Relationship: Billie Piper (right) has described her booze-fuelled marriage to Virgin Radio DJ Chris Evans (left) as having been drunk with an old man for ‘five years’
‘Loved it. loved that time. Learned so much,” she says. “I really needed it, after the experiences I’d had up to this point. And I felt like I actually found a real friend.
“I guess I’ll meet someone who’s experienced it [fame] For 20 years it was very nurturing at that level. And also very drunk, which is what I needed. I had a lot of fun over those years.”
Glamorous: Piper, pictured in her outfit for British Vogue and Tiffany & Co. Fashion and Film Party 2022
She was thrust back into the limelight when she starred alongside Christopher Eccleston and then David Tennant in Doctor Who until 2008, when she gave up her permanent role on the show.
“Everyone who liked Doctor Who was drawn to the character and that was great. Although it made me very famous again, which I had a problem with,” she says.
The 40-year-old mother of three has been in a relationship with musician Johnny Lloyd since their divorce from her second husband, actor and activist Laurence Fox, in 2016. the Sky Atlantic series, which she co-created with Succession writer Lucy Prebble.
The drama follows the misadventures of Suzie Pickles, a teen-pop star-turned-sci-fi actress whose life falls apart as she struggles with the downsides of fame — a character Piper has insisted isn’t autobiographical.
She says she now feels more able to appreciate the ups and downs of growing up in public, adding, “Fame is awful. It’s disgusting. It’s such a dark thing. And it will alter your day-to-day experience of life in a way that, frankly, in my experience, is depressing. If I imagine some of my happiest and freest times, most of them are before fame.’
Stars: Piper and Johnny Lloyd (right) attend the launch of Mr. Porter’s charity fund, The Mr Porter Health and Mind Fund, at Quaglino’s on October 10, 2019