We all want a husband like Prince Harry! As she 星／主役にするs in a major BBC 演劇, Donna 空気／公表する - who 時代遅れの James Middleton for five years - gives a very personal take on men, marriage and Megxit

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Donna 空気／公表する says she isn't what you would call a 'jobbing actress'.?

She might have started out as one ? she was just a child when she got her first 事実上の／代理 役割, in Byker Grove と一緒に Ant and Dec ? but in the three １０年間s since, she's become more famous as a presenter, personality and general socialite whose main 役割 seems to be appearing in the gossip columns.

Every so often she does 下落する her toe 支援する into the world of fictional TV, though.?

This time she's 支援する with やめる a corker, having landed a part in the returning BBC 演劇 The 分裂（する）, joining a 最高の，を越す-notch cast 含むing Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan and フランs Barber.?

The series, 始める，決める in the world of the 離婚 lawyer, sees her play Fi, a glamorous celebrity who is 罠にかける in a high-profile but 哀れな marriage, and with a 窒息させるing pre-nuptial 協定 in place.?

Donna 空気／公表する, 40, (pictured) from Newcastle, who?got her first 事実上の／代理 役割 in Byker Grove as a child, is 始める，決める to return to 審査するs as?Fi in BBC 演劇 The 分裂（する）

The 役割 伴う／関わるs much wafting around, showi ng off an Instagram-enviable life in public, but also much weeping in 私的な.

'It's a horrible marriage, a s**tshow,' she says.?'She's got a terrible husband. He gaslights her. He's a pathological liar, controlling and narcissistic. She starts to lose her mind.?

'I mean, you think the one person you can 信用 is your husband, but that isn't the 事例／患者. She was a dream to play, though.'

Marriage gets a bit of a bum 非難する in general in this rather excellent 演劇.?

（弁護士の）依頼人s are warring, desperate to escape their unions. The lawyers are cheating in their own marriages.?

The unrelenting message? Marriage is a messy 商売／仕事. Thank God, says Donna, she never succumbed herself.

'It made me relieved I'm not married,' she 収容する／認めるs.?

'I'm so glad I've waited this long and I 港／避難所't 急ぐd 負かす／撃墜する the aisle. My daughter, who's 16, teases me about it.?

Donna has had high profile 関係s with Damian Aspinall and James Middleton. Pictured, Donna with James and Pippa Middleton at an event in London in 2015

'She's desperate for me to get a husband but she does say that at least when I do it, it will be for keeps, and that if I'd married years ago I'd probably be on my second or third marriage by now.?

'Some of my friends are.'

She jokes about the fact that there's a family history of taking some time over the marriage question.?

'My mum is on her second marriage now but she only got remarried last year. She'd been with him for 22 years, though.?

'The 空気／公表する women aren't known for 急ぐing 負かす／撃墜する the aisle.?

'Yes, I probably would like to marry Mr 権利, but I'm glad I didn't marry the wrong man for the wrong 推論する／理由s.'

If you only know about Donna through Hello! magazine, you might be surprised that she hasn't hot-footed it up the aisle before now.?

Donna 噴出するs that it's amazing how Prince Harry has put his wife, Meghan (pictured together) and their child first with their new life?

Her life, outwardly, has seemed one big 準備 for the sort of wedding that keeps high-society milliners in 商売／仕事.?

Previous high-profile partners have 含むd multi-millionaire conservationist Damian Aspinall ? the father of her daughter Freya ?and James Middleton, brother of the Duchess of Cambridge.

Neither of those 関係s worked out (we will come to that), but today, as we 会合，会う for lunch, the surprise is that she says she's not 現実に that keen on weddings ? not the big socialite ones anyway.?

'I don't go to that many. I find them terribly boring.?

'It's such a long day, and there's a lot of small talk. They're not that exciting. Some of them go on for days too.'

But she does weddings so 井戸／弁護士席! 支援する in 2017, when she seemed 均衡を保った herself to marry into the Middleton 一族／派閥, she was a guest at the society wedding of the year ? that of Pippa Middleton and James Matthews.?

There she met that other happy couple, the not-then-engaged Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. She's at 苦痛s to 強調する／ストレス that this one did not come under the 'boring society wedding' bracket.?

'I don't think Pippa would want me talking about her wedding.?

'There may have been people standing outside taking photos, but inside it was very much a 私的な wedding, a 本物の family wedding, and those ones are lovely.'

We are 会合 at a time when the whole world is talking about the Harry and Meghan bombshell, and their 決定／判定勝ち（する） to jack in 王室の 義務s for a new life in Canada.

Having 現実に met them, and having some 認識／意識性 of what life in the goldfish bowl is like, can she empathise? She can indeed.

'I've met the prince and he's lovely, but we did get our knickers in a 権利 big old 新たな展開 over this, didn't we? They're just going on an aeroplane, for goodness sake.

'My mum said the other day that she was thinking of moving somewhere hot and I said, 'Good for you, Mum, do it.' I'd have the same 見解（をとる） with them.?

'They seem a very nice couple. Why should they not have the best 発射 at their 関係, a bit of 私的な time? I know a lot of people don't feel like that but are we really bothered where they live??

Donna?is still, underneath the social gloss, a very 負かす／撃墜する-to-earth Newcastle lass, although as has been pointed out, the accent comes and goes a bit?

'And they're going to be making their own money, so they can do what they like.?Yes, we love Harry but we don't own him. They're not our 囚人s.'

Given half a chance, she'd go with them. 'I would! Their new life sounds wonderful ? outdoorsy and healthy. Good for them.'

現実に, this 最新の debacle has made her love Harry even more.?

'I think it's やめる amazing that he's put his wife and child first. Isn't that how we're supposed to be? Shouldn't most men put their wife and children first?

'I do think it's an incredibly 勇敢に立ち向かう thing to do. But can you imagine if he didn't??

'He'd be damned that way too. Don't we all want a husband like Harry? Of course we do.'

In the flesh, Donna 空気／公表する is 広大な／多数の／重要な fun.?

Her 現在のing 技術s might have once led to her 存在 dubbed Donna Airhead (her most famous gaffe was when she asked Irish 禁止（する）d The Corrs, at the time perhaps the most famous siblings in the pop world, how they met), but there is nothing airheady about her today.?

She's 40, smart and seemingly sorted.?

She is still, underneath the social gloss, a very 負かす／撃墜する-to-earth Newcastle lass, although as has been pointed out, the accent comes and goes a bit.

Donna as Fi in The 分裂（する） with her character’s controlling husband Richie (Ben Bailey Smith)

She grew up in a two-bedroom house with a mum who was a BT receptionist and a dad who was a bus mechanic.?

In the past, much has been made about her humble Geordie roots, with general astonishment that one can go from them to moving in 王室の circles with 明らかな 緩和する. She is (rightly) 感情を害する／違反するd at this.

'I always tell them, 'People from Newcastle can go all sorts of places. They can even get on aeroplanes.'

Her 非，不，無-TV work does seem to 伴う／関わる endless charity fundraisers and hob-nobbing.?

She's 伴う／関わるd with the Elephant Family charity, whose 王室の 大統領，／社長s are Charles and Camilla, and is an 助言者 to a 小売 company that runs 高級な shopping 出口 Bicester Village.

And she's at 苦痛s to point out that it was not her ex James Middleton who opened the door into that society.?

She had 高度に connected friends before (Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie are part of her circle).?

Donna 収容する／認めるs she was torn when her daughter Freya recently 調印するd a modelling 契約. Pictured, mother and daughter

'He didn't take me into any circles,' she says.?'We had 相互の friends from the start. London is a small place.?We all eat in the same restaurants, go to the same places.' She sighs.?

'It's not that much of a stretch, but the trouble is that if a woman has anything, people assume it has been given to her by a man.'

She was never supposed to be a damsel-in-waiting, though. She moved to London at the tender age of 15, having been 申し込む／申し出d a 記録，記録的な／記録するing 契約 on the 支援する of her Byker Grove success.?

Her parents, who are 離婚d, stayed up north. Although she had a chaperone ('my London mum'), it was a 残虐な 入ること／参加（者） into a very adult world.

Her own daughter recently 調印するd a modelling 契約, becoming the youngest model on the 機関's 調書をとる／予約するs. She 収容する／認めるs she was torn.?

'But it's a different world now. I had my 株 of having to bat off sleazy guys.?

'It's just how it was then. My daughter's 世代 are in a 完全に different 環境. They wouldn't stand for that.'

She was a pop 星／主役にする for a bit, then landed a dream 職業 as a presenter on MTV.?

There was a stint on The Big Breakfast which seemed to be putting her on the same trajectory as her old mates Ant and Dec.?

No, they aren't still in touch to the same degree, but she has watched their careers ? and personal ups and 負かす／撃墜するs ? with 利益／興味.?

Was she surprised to learn about Ant's 井戸／弁護士席- 文書d 中毒 問題／発行するs? She shrugs. 'I'm never surprised. You just don't know what's going on with anybody.?

'People have all sorts of struggles. Us Brits can get 裁判官-y about it, but are you going to punish anyone for having an illness?'

While Ant and Dec were born presenters, she says she wasn't.?

'I'm happier 事実上の／代理. I like not 存在 me for a bit. You can lose yourself in a good part.'

She's rather good in her 最新の 役割, 持つ／拘留するing her own against some of the most 尊敬（する）・点d 指名するs in the 商売／仕事.?

She's dipped in and out of 事実上の／代理 over the years, but 収容する／認めるs today that although it's her 'first love, and the thing I'm most 熱烈な about', she never considered it would be her 主要な支え.

'I thought that 事実上の／代理 was a young person's game and that the 役割s would 乾燥した，日照りの up as I got older. 現実に, I was wrong.?

'Things have changed and there are brilliant 役割s for women of my age now.'

支援する then, she was part of the young and beautiful 始める，決める.?

She hung about with the likes of Kate Moss and Sadie 霜, and when she was 21 was introduce d (by Tara Palmer-Tomkinson) to the person she thought would be her husband, Damian Aspinall, son of the conservationist and 野性生物 park owner John Aspinall, and a man 価値（がある） £42 million.?

A whirlwind romance followed, and home became Howletts, the grand Palladian mansion in Kent.?

She was 24 when she had their daughter Freya. The couple were together for six years and ? in her 注目する，もくろむs ? as good as married.

People even used to call her Mrs Aspinall. Damian, though, had been married before and famously said that rich men should stay 選び出す／独身.?

Donna (pictured in 2000) spent her twenties hanging around with the likes of Kate Moss and Sadie 霜, before 存在 introduced to?Damian Aspinall?by Tara Palmer-Tomkinson

She 収容する／認めるs that she did want to marry him ? though never for the money.?

'That's no 推論する／理由 to marry, is it?' she says. 'But there was definitely a moment when I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to marry Damian.'

That 分裂（する） was one of the 広大な／多数の／重要な heartbreaks of her life.?

She says she's been in love 'probably three times in my life, 深く，強烈に in love' and （機の）カム の近くに to marriage 'a couple of times, but I couldn't do it, and I 港／避難所't done it, so I have to 受託する the universe had a different 計画（する）'.

She and Damian now co-parent Freya, and successfull y so.?

'I think our 状況／情勢 does 証明する it can come 権利 in the end. We are good friends.?

'I've said that in the past when it wasn't 完全に true, but we've reached a place where it 作品 for us.?

'You don't get everything you want in life and it didn't work out ? I know Freya hoped it would, every child wants their parents to be together ? but I'm lucky with Damian.

'I know a lot of women who don't have an active, reliable, 現在の father in their child's life, and I do. But it can be the luck of the draw.'

Damian has since married, though, which must rankle. She 主張するs not.

'I'm happy for him. We are still family.' Do they do a 棒 Stewart and all go on holiday or have Christmases together? She smiles.

'No. You've got to have 境界s. I don't think any wife would want the ex on holiday.'

Then （機の）カム another high-profile romance. She was with James Middleton for five years, やめる a stint. He too, though, is off 負かす／撃墜する the aisle with someone else.?

He 発表するd his 約束／交戦 to French girlfriend Alizee Thevenet in October.?

'With James it wasn't meant to be, but we were together for five years and he's a 広大な／多数の／重要な guy, we had a lot of fun. I wish him nothing but happiness.'?

So what went wrong? 'The タイミング wasn't 権利.'

Then there was an 18-month 関係 with yet another posh boy, Harrow-educated 所有物／資産／財産 developer Ben Carring トン.?

Donna 述べるd the wedding of Pippa Middleton and James Matthews as a beautiful family 事件／事情／状勢. Pictured, Donna 迎える／歓迎するing Spencer Matthews (centre) with James Middleton on the day

She's now been 選び出す／独身 for six months, the longest time she's ever been on her own. 現実に, her life seems やめる perfect as it is.?

'It's やめる 解放するing, but it's also nice to 株 things. I mean my life is not empty.?

'I don't need to be in a 関係. I 機能（する）／行事 井戸／弁護士席 on my own, but I probably would still like to get married at some point. Why would you not?'

Some day her prince might come, then, but she says, 'God knows where he'll be from, because when you get that ぱたぱたする in your heart it could be from anywhere.'?

She confides that in her Byker Grove days she was smitten with Ant.?

'He was my first 鎮圧する, but he was with someone else,' she says.

'I've still got a bit of a 鎮圧する on both Ant and Dec, hasn't everyone?' How history might have been rewritten, had she and Ant teamed up.?

She roars with laughter.?

'Maybe I should have married Ant, 設立する a nice lad from Newcastle. It's not too late. I could still 結局最後にはーなる marrying a plumber from Newcastle.'??

The 分裂（する） returns 11 February, 9pm, BBC1.