Actress Anna Friel says the perfect mother does not exist as she returns to our screens in a new TV drama.
The Rochdale star, who has a 14-year-old daughter Gracie with her ex David Thewlis, plays a struggling mother in the new ITV thriller Deep Water.
The 43-year-old says that while she thinks there's no such thing as a perfect parent, she believes there are mothers "that are better than others."
Speaking to the Press Association the Emmy Award-winning Marcella actress said: "I don't think it exists. I think there's mothers that are better than others.
"I've got a friend called Rachel who's got four children and is a full-time teacher and still makes homemade bread... and I just don't know how she does it.
"That's all she has room for, I think. But is perfection anything anybody should ever strive for? And does it exist? And if it does, I think you would have to be quite conceited and self-obsessed."
Last month Anna shared a super-sweet snap of herself with Gracie on her Instagram, describing her daughter as "the love of my life."
"My darling Gracie, you are the love of my life - happy birthday buba," she wrote.
Anna, who shot to fame in the Channel Four soap Brookside in 1993 as Beth Jordache, stars alongside Sinead Keenan and Rosalind Eleazar in the Lake District-set series, adapted from the Windermere novels by author Paula Daly.
Her character Lisa struggles to juggle her hectic family life with running a business in the six-part series which follows the lives of three women.
Deep Water airs on ITV on Wednesday August 14 at 9pm.
