Billie Piper prefers to keep her personal life just that: personal.

Earlier this year, though, the critically-acclaimed actor confirmed that she and her boyfriend Johnny Lloyd, ex-frontman of indie band Tribes, welcomed a baby daughter together.

Taking to Instagram, Piper shared a photo of herself embracing her newborn daughter and wrote: “Two weeks ago our little girl arrived. She has totally blown our minds.

“I didn’t know what I was missing but it was you Tallulah.”

Piper went on to pay tribute to her partner, as well as her sons Winston and Eugene, whom she shares with ex-husband Laurence Fox.

“(Love) you @johnny_s_lloyd wonderful daddy. And to my boys, who will never read this but anyway, two beautiful and attentive brothers. And to all you lovely lot – for messages of joy and luck and goodwill.”

And now, in a surprisingly candid new interview, Lloyd has done the same.

Some three years after the couple first spent an unexpected evening together at North London’s Boogaloo bar in north London, the couple are as strong as ever. Lloyd is currently writing the music for Piper’s directorial movie debut, Rare Beasts, an anti rom-com about Mandy, a career-driven single mother who falls in love with the charming, traditionalist Pete.

Likewise, the actor appears on the cover of Lloyd’s latest album, Next Episode Starts In 15 Seconds.

And now, speaking to the Mail, Lloyd has explained that he loves how Piper continually challenges him to further his creativity.

“She challenged me,” he says. “She kept asking me questions like, What’s your five-year plan? Where are you headed musically? And telling me I had to be accountable for everything I did.

“I felt my head had been stuck in this way of just thinking next job, next tour and I wanted to keep talking to her. Luckily she felt the same way about me.”

Lloyd adds: “She’s made my life better in so many ways and I just feel I now know who I am, I know what I can do, I know where I want to be. And that’s with her.”

Lloyd previously described Piper as a “daily inspiration”, insisting their relationship immediately began as a “big romance”.

“If you meet somebody like that it blows you over,” he said. “This was who I wanted to be with. Every day she inspires me.”

Image: Getty