Rebecca Ferguson had to pay rent to her mother from the age of just 15.
The 34-year-old actress’ parents divorced when she was three, and she lived between their houses in Sweden, but when she landed her first job, on a soap opera, as a teenager, she was told to "give back" to their family and feels grateful for having to do that.
She recalled her mother said: "You’re going to pay rent now, because you’re a working woman who is earning more than me so you give back to the family."
Of that experience, Rebecca said: "I learnt then the value of making money for myself."
After the show ended a year later, Rebecca struggled to find where she fitted in because she’d given up school for her work.
She told Vogue magazine: "I remember thinking, I’m just not a part of that world anymore. I wasn’t going to university, I couldn’t, because I’d left school early.
"By 16, I’d left home too. My friends were older and I’d begun to drift from one friendship to the next."
The ‘Snowman’ actress turned to work in "day care, restaurants, and shoe shops" to "support herself" until she landed a TV role in Miami Beach.
And even though the project went "t**s up", Rebecca didn’t mind.
She said: "It didn’t really matter because I was 17 and I got to live in another country for a year."
The ‘Greatest Showman’ actress’ big international break came when she was 30 in ‘The White Queen’ for the BBC and she never stopped to think about what she was taking on because things moved so quickly.
She recalled: "I got the part and three days later we were shooting.
"I never really asked, ‘What is happening here? Where am I going? Do I want this trip?’ I just decided to go with it. I thought, why not."
Rebecca Ferguson had to pay rent to her mother
