Billie Piper enjoyed a raucous four year romance with Chris Evans, who was 17 years her junior.
The former singer burst onto the pop music scene when she was 15, catapulting her into fame at an early age. Two years later, Billie met showbiz veteran Chris when she appeared on an episode of his hit show TFI Friday. "There was just a natural affinity between us, an easy banter," said Billie, revealing the pair hit it off straight away despite their age gap - which she later told the presenter to ignore when they became closer.
Weeks later, Chris invited Billie on his Virgin Radio show where their electric chemistry continued to fizzle. "Why don't we get married and sell the photos to Hello, then give all the money to charity?" Chris told her, with Billie confused as to whether he was joking or not.
For their first date Chris took Billie to notorious club Stringfellows. " He had his hands down the back of my trousers all night playing with my thong, and I let him," said Billie.
The pair began dating officially shortly after with their whirlwind romance turning into wedded bliss. The following year the fun-loving duo tied the knot in a ceremony in Las Vegas when the Billie was just 18-years-old while Chris was 35.
They later split in 2004 before divorcing in 2007, the former couple remain close friends. Reflecting on her marriage to the radio star, Billie told The Guardian: "A lot of it was just tabloid fodder, rather than, ‘Oh, she was a pop star.' It was more, ‘She was a pop star, then she got p*****d for five years with an old man.’
"I think that was the lasting image when I walked into an audition room.” The actress has remained good friends with Chris and admitted she "really needed" the marriage and "learned so much" during their time together.
She added: “I felt like I’d actually found a real friend. I guess meeting someone who had experienced [fame] for 20 years, at that level, it was very nurturing. And also very drunken, which I needed. I had a lot of fun during those years.”
Billie continued: “Fame is awful. It’s gross. It’s such a dark thing. And it will change your everyday experience of life in a way that is depressing, frankly, in my experience of it.
"When I imagine some of my happiest, and my free-est times, most of them are pre-fame. Not to be down on my kids! I’ve obviously had deeply meaningful experiences with my children, and they made me happier than anything, and that’s the truth, but I also really cherish the memories of not being famous.”
It wasn't all plain-sailing however, with the cracks beginning to show in their marriage with 'screaming rows' over Billie's burgeoning acting career and her upset over Chris' lack of support.
Looking back on the demise of their marriage during a 2012 interview with the Radio Times, Chris explained: "Our lives changed. She got her career back on track. It was evident we weren't the same people. and although splitting up hurt, it was the best thing we ever did, apart from marrying in the first place. She was too young for me - only 18 when we met - but it was a real adventure."
After splitting from Chris, Billie went on to marry Laurence Fox and they share two children – Winston James Fox, 14, and Eugene Pip Fox, 11. Billie also has a third child, four-year-old Tallulah Lloyd, with her ex-partner and Tribes frontman, Johnny Lloyd.
Radio stalwart Chris also remarried Natasha Shishmanian in 2007 with ex-wife Billie in attendance. Billie, who turned her back on the music industry and famously played Rose Tyler in BBC's Doctor Who, currently stars in Netflix's Scoop. Scoop focuses on the 2019 royal interrogation of Prince Andrew, played by Rufus Sewell, by Newsnight's Emily Maitlis, who is played by Gillian Anderson, over his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Billie stars as Sam McAlister, who had the job of booking guests for Newsnight and whose memoir is the basis of the Netflix film. The actress revealed in an interview with Digital Spy how it felt to watch the infamous interview scene unfold.
"I was just really excited to be able to stand in the room and watch Gillian and Rufus [Sewell, who plays Prince Andrew] do that," she said. "And it felt like actually watching a play, and it was directed in such a way that we sat through it from beginning to end a number of times. There was something very goosebumpy about that, for me."
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