Donna Air says her career was damaged by the fact she was part of the notorious Primrose Hill set.
The 40-year-old actress and presenter was part of the exclusive North London party scene – which was always dogged by rumours of drug taking and partner swapping.
Donna – who first flexed her acting muscles in the early ‘90s in children’s TV show Byker Grove and now stars in BBC drama The Split – says being part of the notorious group made being taken seriously in business meetings more difficult.
The high profile group of friends included A List actors Jude Law and Ewan Mcgregor, Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, and models Kate Moss, Meg Mathews and Sadie Frost – among others.
Speaking to The Sun on Sunday’s Fabulous magazine, Donna said she shunned the hedonistic elements associated with the group – who The Independent described as enjoying: “Drink, drugs and bed-hopping.”
Donna told Fabulous: “No, no. There was an element of misbehaving, but I’m quite good at staying a relative distance from any trouble.”
She added: “We must have all seemed like man-eating alcoholics.”
However, she suggested being associated with the wild group damaged her career – which has included acting, TV presenting and working with brands as an ambassador.
She said: “That takes a bit of time to shake off. It does take longer to then get a serious acting role or walk into a business meeting and be taken seriously.”
She added: “You’ve got to prove that you’re not the person that is necessarily portrayed.”
Donna played a client of law firm Nobel & Hale in the BBC drama The Split with viewers seeing her going through a painful divorce.
Playing the part was not too different from Donna’s real life, she said, as her character was also someone in the spotlight.
She said in a previous interview: “'m insanely private, but that's the dream about acting - you can put all these bits of yourself , which you wouldn't normally like to share, into a character."
