Natalie Anderson felt "frazzled" during lockdown when she was juggling homeschooling and running her business, as well as being a mum and a wife.
The former ‘Emmerdale’ actress admitted it was tough to have so much on the go when the UK was placed into lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic, but if things are ever getting a bit much she tells her eight-year-old son Freddie she needs to "calm her brain down".
She said: "I found it very hard to be homeschooling, running a business, being a mum and a wife – it left me frazzled.
"But I have a very open relationship with my son and we talk about mental health.
"Often he’ll sit next to me and read his book, and I’ll have my candle burning."
Natalie – who played Alicia Metcalfe in ‘Emmerdale’ – has admitted her son was partly the reason she decided to grow her fashion, beauty and lifestyle business, The Capsule, after he cheered her up when she hadn’t been successful in landing an acting role.
Speaking to HELLO! magazine, she added: "I’d not got an acting job and I was upset about it, but Freddie said, ‘Mummy, I don’t know why you’re so upset because you’re already the boss of The Capsule.’ "
Natalie departed the ITV soap in 2015 because she wanted to spend more time with Freddie, and previously admitted she took her character "as far as she could go".
She said: "It was a challenge as she is very different from me, but I wanted to be a proper mum to Freddie and I also felt that I had taken the character as far as she could go."