Silent Witness & My Real-Life Dramas

Emilia Fox talks to Clare Goldwin about the joy of parenthood, Botox fantasies and how her alter ego, forensic pathologist Dr Nikki Alexander, deserves to find love…

With her ability to convey fragility and strength, Emilia Fox, 42, has become one of the country’s most popular and versatile actresses. At our shoot she is warm, witty, thoughtful, self-deprecating and politeness personified. Emilia was born into acting royalty – her parents are Joanna David, 69, and Edward Fox, 79. Her younger brother Freddie, 27, is also an actor, as is her cousin Laurence Fox and uncle James Fox. Since her first role as Mr Darcy’s sister in the 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, she’s appeared in a variety of stage, TV and screen productions. But it’s for her enduring TV role as dogged forensic pathologist Dr Nikki Alexander in Silent Witness that she’s best known, and this year Silent Witness celebrates its 20th anniversary, and Emilia’s 13th year with the show. In the time she’s been playing Nikki, Emilia has experienced some major real-life milestones. In 2005 she married actor Jared Harris, but she experienced the heartbreak of miscarriage before they eventually separated after three years. Emilia went on to have a girl, Rose, now six, with actor and campaigner Jeremy Gilley. The couple split while Rose was a baby. Emilia lives with Rose in London.

On Silent Witness

I’ve come to care very much about Nikki, my character in Silent Witness. She’s been a huge part of my life for over a decade. We’ve been through a lot together and in many ways she’s been the steadfast in my life during that time. I’m like Nikki in that we’ve both got careers we’re committed to and feel passionately about. But she is a workaholic and uses work as a distraction from an absence of any personal life. Happily, I go home to a daughter and family life.