We're used to stars being coy about any cosmetic procedures they may have had, but Olivia Colman has no such qualms. 

The 41-year-old Broadchurch actress says she has had Botox, and loved it - but kept the treatment secret from her husband, Ed Sinclair, at first.

"I have done Botox and I LOVED it [but] I've done it when I know there is a big gap [between roles]," Olivia told The Times, in an interview this weekend. "I didn't tell my husband and then for about six months he kept saying, 'Hello, Pretty!' and then I told him and he found it hilarious."

Despite undergoing Botox, Olivia says she does not feel under pressure to conform to any particular beauty standard as a result of appearing on-screen - especially when it comes to body image.

"God help anyone who tries to suggest ... If anyone told me I was too fat for a role, I'd have them," she notes.

The actress is preparing for a third series of  hit ITV series Broadchurch, where she stars alongside David Tennant as police detective Ellie Miller.

The sequel may appear on our screens as early as the beginning of 2016, although Olivia admits she was taken aback by the negative response from viewers to season two of the show. The reaction included a number of complaints on social media that the storyline was unrealistic, and not as strong or compelling as season one of the coastal murder mystery how.

"I'm not a terribly thick-skinned person," says Olivia. "People can be slightly desensitised to people's feelings nowadays, which has got greater over the years with Twitter. I do get upset."

The actress is currently working on a film adaptation of the John le Carré book The Night Manager.

She and husband Ed, who live with their two children in Peckham, South London, are also expecting their third child this August.

Olivia says that when she found out she was pregnant, she asked producers of The Night Manager if they could make her intelligence officer character pregnant as well. They agreed. 

The actress has had all her children in August - prompting her to joke that Ed finds her very attractive in November. 

"It was love at first sight with Ed," she recalls, in a previous interview with the Mail in 2013. "He was studying law at Cambridge and I was at the teacher training college. We met doing drama at the Footlights [the university dramatic club]. He walked in and it was like a thunderbolt. I thought, ‘There’s the bloke I’m going to marry.’

"He's totally supportive," she adds. "He started out acting but the work just dried up. And, actually, for him I think it was a bit of a relief because he’d always wanted to write and he’s brilliant at it. He is working on a novel now and he’s quite secretive about the process. Ed being at home also means that he can look after the children if I’m away, and he’s a far better parent than me. So, although I miss the kids terribly if I’m away working, I know our little boys are in the best possible hands. When I get back they go, 'Oh no, she’s not going to cook is she? She’s bound to burn something!'"

Photos: Rex Features and Getty Images