While many actors are happy to discuss every moment of their love lives with the world at large via the press, Emma Watson is not one of them.

And in a new interview with Vanity Fair, the 26-year-old explains why she prefers to keep details about any partners firmly under wraps.

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“I can’t talk about my boyfriend in an interview and then expect people not to take paparazzi pictures of me walking around outside my home,” says Watson. “You can’t have it both ways.”

According to reports, Watson is currently dating tech entrepreneur William ‘Mack’ Knight, and they’ve been photographed together on numerous occasions over the past year.

However, to separate her career as much as possible from her personal life, Watson has made a conscious effort to keep him away from the spotlight.

“I’ve noticed, in Hollywood, who you’re dating gets tied up into your film promotion and becomes part of the performance and the circus,” she tells the magazine. “I would hate anyone that I were with to feel like they were in any way part of a show or an act.”

While we don’t have the paparazzi clamouring for shots of us with our romantic partner, many of us feel we’re faced with a somewhat similar dilemma when it comes to social media. How much is too much when it comes to sharing posts about your relationship?

According to the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, when people post their relationship highlights for the virtual world to admire, it signifies that people are anxious about their sponsored_longform.

“On a daily basis, when people felt more insecure about their partner’s feelings, they tended to make their relationships visible,” wrote the study’s authors. “These studies highlight the role of relationships in how people portray themselves to others.”

Watson frequently uses Twitter and Instagram to update her fans about her career, but one thing she truly hates about social media is the immediate nature of it when it comes to posting pictures – and has now decided not to let her fans to take photographs with her.

The Harry Potter star says: “For me, it’s the difference between being able to have a life and not.

“If someone takes a photograph of me and posts it, within two seconds they’ve created a marker of exactly where I am within 10 metres. 

“They can see what I’m wearing and who I’m with. I just can’t give that tracking data.”

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The model continued: “I’ll say, 'I will sit here and answer every single Harry Potter fandom question you have but I just can’t do a picture.

“I have to carefully pick and choose my moment to interact. When am I a celebrity sighting versus when am I going to make someone’s freakin’ week? 

“Children I don’t say no to, for example.”

The full interview can be read in the March issue of Vanity Fair.

Images; Rex Pictures