Fiona O'Carroll says she and ex-husband Martin Delaney "co-parent very well" after their split this year.
Fiona, best known as Maria Brown, married her childhood sweetheart and co-star Martin, who plays Trevor Brown on the hit show, in 2006.
However they went their separate ways earlier this year.
Fiona lives in Ashbourne, Co Meath, with their four boys Felix, 14, Eli, 12, Isaac, 7, and Dexter, 6.
Three of the boys are on the autism spectrum and she said she is grateful her work schedule allows her to spend so much time with them.
Speaking to the RTE Guide, Fiona said: “They’re great, they’re gas, they make me laugh everyday.”
The boys have high IQs but are affected in other ways, such as sensory issues and interpreting social cues.
She explained: “It’s difficult to explain to them and knowing the right time to explain these thighs and to make it normal, and it is normal, this is the thing. It is normal. This has been around for a very long time.”
She found lockdown tough with work cancelled, social isolation and homeschooling as a single mother.
Martin now lives in Portugal, but stays in the house with the boys when he comes back to Ireland.
“We co-parent very well and we always did; we just drifted as individuals and partners but we still get on,” she said.
She said: “Myself and Martin met very young. I was 16, and I suppose he’s all I’ve ever known and we just kind of grew apart.
“We wanted different things. I still have a lot of love for him and I only want the best for him and I think he feels the same way about me.
“There were no major fights, and nobody else was involved but it was a case of not being on the same page any longer.”
The 41-year-old admitted she tried to hold on to her marriage, after witnessing her own parents’ public split.
Her father Brendan and her mum, Doreen, were wed 22 years before separating when she was a teen in 1999.
