Billie Piper has buried ‘stress of fame at early age’ so it doesn’t ‘haunt her’

Billie Piper has spoken out about how her early rise to fame had affected her and how she is only now coming to to terms with it.

The 37-year-old singer turned actress was only 15 when she hit number one with her debut single Because We Want in 1998, the youngest ever singer to go straight in at the top slot.

She has now spoken how she has "buried" the "stress" of her late teens and early 20's as she tried to cope with her new-found fame.

Billie has said that she has looked to face what she experienced then to help her with a role she is playing in new Sky series, I Hate Suzie.

Speaking to the Radio Times, Billie has shared how her own life has informed the story and character, in a project in which she co-created and stars in.

The drama tells the story of a celebrity who falls victim to phone hacking.

Billie told the magazine she knows "exactly" what it feels like to become famous early on in life, adding: "I'm sure it feeds into my performance.

"I'm only coming to terms with a lot of it right now.

"In my 20s a lot of my stress from that period was buried, and I still struggle to remember a lot of it."

She added that she does not "regret" the period, saying: "I love what I do and where I'm at personally.

"But I certainly wouldn't want my children to go that way."

Despite this Billie said the narrative in I Hate Suzie is "completely made up", adding: "There are lots of moments I really wouldn't want people to think were autobiographical."

Her character is "not always likeable or a great mother", she said.

"She's quite often monstrous and hysterical and tightly wound. But that's in all of us.

"I find it incredibly frustrating when I watch anything and I'm not getting that from a female character."

I Hate Suzie airs on August 27.

*The full interview is in Radio Times magazine, out now.

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