Chris Evans ex Billie Piper says marriage was being ‘drunk with an old man’

I Hate Suzie star Billie Piper, 40, got candid about the “dark” side of fame last year, and said that when she was married to Virgin Radio’s Chris Evans, 57, she was perceived as a pop star drinking “for five years with an old man”.

In a 2022 interview with The Guardian, Billie opened up about how being famous since 15 had changed her life, and discussed how “gross” it can be.

“Fame is awful. It’s gross. It’s such a dark thing,” she said. “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.”

The mum-of-three revealed what it was like being married to the former Top Gear presenter.

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“A lot of it was just tabloid fodder, rather than, ‘Oh, she was a pop star,’ she said.

“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.”

She then corrected herself to call Chris an “older man. Not old man. He’s an old man now, but then, so am I”.

The pair met when Billie appeared on TFI Friday in 2000 after being in the music business for three years.

After Chris made the grand gesture of delivering her a Ferrari full of roses, the pair started dating and married in 2001 in a Las Vegas ceremony.

At the time, the Swindon-born actor was 18 while the DJ was 35.

Discussing their whirlwind romance – they split up in 2004 when she was 21 and divorced in 2007 – the Doctor Who star said that she: “Loved it.”

“Loved that time. Learned so much,” she explained. “Really needed it, after the experiences that I’d had, leading up to that point.

“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,” she added.

After divorcing Chris, Billie went on to marry the activist Lawrence Fox in 2007.

The pair share two children, Winston James Fox and Eugene Pip Fox. She also has a daughter named Tallulah Lloyd with her partner, Johnny Lloyd.

Billie has been in a relationship with the Tribes frontman since 2016, and they met through mutual friends.