Caroline Quentin "can't bear" the thought of her children leaving home.
Caroline Quentin
The 56-year-old actress has Emily, 17, and Sam, 14, with her husband Sam Farmer - whom she wed in 2006 - and has said her biggest worry is having to cope without her brood being in the family home, as her daughter nears the age of flying the nest.
She said: "Sam and I can't bear the thought of it. We're such a great unit of four and get on so well - the kids are always taking the p**s out of us. We joke we may lock them in their rooms until they're 30 or stalk them wherever they go.
"Emily wants a career in show business - probably musical theatre. It will be so weird when she's at college and there are no hits from the musicals blasting out.
"Luckily, friends tell us these days children are like boomerangs, they keep coming back. Motherhood is definitely the best role I've ever had."
The 'Men Behaving Badly' actress' worries come after she and her 44-year-old husband swapped traditional parenting roles when their children were younger, as she was the one who continued working.
She revealed: "We swapped roles when we had the kids, quite unusual then.Sam stayed at home and brought them up while I was free to go on location or tour. I don't know how he coped on his own with a tiny baby and a toddler in those early years.
"It's probably hard for Sam and the kids when I'm coming and going. I've always been good cop to Sam's bad cop. I can be fun because I am usually going off again."
And the 'Jonathan Creek' star - who was previously married to Paul Merton - recalled meeting Sam when he worked as a runner on a show she was starring in, and claimed it was "love at first sight".
Speaking to the Daily Mirror newspaper, Caroline said: "It was love at first sight. I'm 56 and he's 44 but the age gap has never bothered us - we take it in turns to be grown-ups.
"It was lashing down with rain and this extremely handsome young man in a baseball cap came up to me and said, 'Can I get you breakfast?' I thought, 'No thank you, but you can get me something else'. I asked one of the girls on set who he was and she told me he was the new runner.
"People were sniffy to start with. I think we have established that it is functioning as a relationship. He was the right person for me. He was a grown man - almost 27 - he wasn't a child. It has been a triumph."
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