Game Of Thrones star Natalie Dormer revealed she welcomed her first child with partner David Oakes during lockdown.
The actress, 39, said she gave birth to a daughter, who is now 12 weeks old.
Speaking to Esther Rantzen and Adrian Mills on the That’s After Life podcast, Dormer said: “It’s the perfect thing to do during a pandemic, is get pregnant and have a baby.
“I feel like I’m probably being a bit of a cliche, she’ll probably be sitting in a bar in 30 years’ time on a date going, ‘Yeah, I’m a Covid baby’.
“I think there’s going to be lots of Covid babies because what else could people do? Maybe like Blitz babies.”
Dormer, who played Margaery Tyrell on Game Of Thrones, added: “She’s an absolute joy. I’m never going to complain about shooting hours ever again because the sleep deprivation is something else.”
Dormer said becoming a mother had transformed her outlook on life.
She told TV presenter Rantzen: “You hear people say, ‘Your whole perspective on life will change, and your whole set of value systems will alter’ and you sort of roll your eyes as a childless person and go, ‘yeah, yeah, you don’t know the true meaning of life until you’ve had a baby’ – and then you have one and you go, ‘Oh, Wow!’ It really does completely alter the lens.
“I’m in love, I’m absolutely in love. She’s a joy. It’s a steep learning curve.”
Dormer’s other roles include playing Anne Boleyn in TV series The Tudors and starring as Cressida in the final two Hunger Games movies.
She said she would find it “very difficult” to return to work after becoming a mother.
Dormer said: “You don’t want to warp a child’s childhood experience. People in the industry I’m in do lean on nannies and they do that for a reason, so that they can take children with them.”
She said it was the “perfect” time to return to the stage, but added: “But with Covid, who knows when that will happen. I really feel for our theatres around the country, it’s hard times.”
Dormer also explained why she does not have a social media presence, though sometimes wishes she could correct online falsehoods about her.
She said: “My position has always been; no judgement, each to their own and if people want to engage in it and do it, how wonderful they get to have dialogue.
“Because I have missed it in so far as when I’ve been misquoted or an editorial interview has gone sideways and I’ve felt very misrepresented, you don’t have that immediate outlet of being able to tweet or Instagram and go, ‘that’s not what I said’ or, ‘my words have been twisted’.
“And it’s there forever and people believe what they read and suddenly it ends on Wiki and people believe it’s fact.”
