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Keira Knightley reveals feeling split over return to work after family time in pandemic

Keira Knightley has admitted being torn over returning to work after the pandemic.
Keira Knightley has admitted being torn over returning to work after full-time motherhood during the pandemic. (Getty Images)

Just like so many other mothers, the pandemic has had an impact on Keira Knightley's approach to work and family time.

The actress, 36, revealed in a new interview how she had felt divided after having had a "lovely" time as a full-time parent to her two young daughters.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph's Stella magazine, she said: "There’s a part of me that went, this is great, maybe I should never work again.

"And another part of me that was like, whoa, I need to get back to work very quickly. But it felt lovely, because we’re a family that had, up until then, moved around the whole time."

The actress married husband James Righton in 2013. (Getty Images)
The actress married husband James Righton in 2013. (Getty Images)

Knightley was locked down at her home in London, with her husband, the musician James Righton, and their daughters, Edie, six, and Delilah, two.

The mother-of-two – who is appearing in new film Silent Night – revealed that last year she had to "pull out" of the Apple TV adaptation of novel The Essex Serpent due to pandemic restrictions.

She explained: "It was filming at that point when you couldn’t travel between different parts of the UK. My youngest was one, and suddenly I might be stuck on the other side of the country and I wouldn’t be able to get to her. I couldn’t do that."

In normal times, the star splits childcare 50-50 with her other half, who she married in 2013.

Read more: Drew Barrymore reveals she doesn't relate to people who 'glide through' parenting

Earlier this year, Knightley – who rose to fame in films Bend It Like Beckham, Love Actually and Atonement – spoke to Harper's Bazaar about feeling more self-assured with age.

She said: "You do get more confident as you get older. I don't know why that is. I guess you've experienced more? You've gone through the highs and lows already. You just have a better sense of yourself."

The star added: "You also understand that you're never going to please everybody and that that's impossible.

"So I think you just have to have the confidence to go, 'This is me and you're not all going to like it'. And that's fine."

Watch: Longstanding celebrity relationships