I’ve always hated sex scenes – but pretending to romp in my new show was the worst for awful reason, says Laila Rouass
SHE has a figure envied by women half her age, which she proudly showed off in a see-through swimsuit selfie.
And actress Laila Rouass says she feels “more confident” than ever now she’s in her 50s.
She is adamant her age shouldn’t force her to hide her curves under frumpy outfits.
The beauty, 52 today, told the Sun: “I feel more confident in my body than ever and I’m more than happy to show it off.
“Of course, like everyone, there are days where I feel rubbish and there’s no way I’d be taking pics in my underwear.
“Nobody looks or feels like that all the time.
“But on days where I feel great, why not take a pic and post it on the internet? If I look good, I’m happy for everyone to see it.”
And the ex-Footballers’ Wives and Holby City star needed all her confidence for her latest role in upcoming new ITVX comedy drama The Effects of Lying.
She plays a middle-aged, sex-mad mum who cheats on her husband Naveen, played by Ace Bhatti, 53.
She explained: “It’s really unusual to have a role for a woman over 40 that actually shows women as confident, sexual beings.
“She is absolutely nuts but I love that she’s not afraid to get what she wants.
“Wearing her revealing clothes didn’t worry me, it made me feel great. I had such fun filming it.”
Laila, whose partner is snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan, 47, adds of her character Sangeeta: “She is a really sexual person — and she’s in a marriage with a man who is lovely but a bit boring, so she’s always wondering ‘what if?’.
Raunchy role
“She’s not a normal mother and definitely not a normal south Asian mother.
“She really doesn’t care what she does now or who she upsets.
“It’s her way of rebelling against the role she’s been forced into by society.
“So many women go along with a life like that and have regrets about what might have been.
“Her affair was her silent protest.
“She is the polar opposite to her husband, who drives her mad faffing around with the bins.
“I can sympathise with that. Ronnie has five different recycling bins and it drives me crazy.”
Laila, who grew up in Stepney, East London, was a successful model before turning her hand to acting.
She said her body confidence was instilled in her from an early age, and her mum Fatima actually banned mirrors at home to stop her worrying about her weight.
She added: “I come from a culture that celebrates the bigger woman and, growing up, my parents were really determined that I wouldn’t become obsessed with my weight.
“I had four sisters and none of us were allowed a mirror in our bedrooms.
“We had to share one mirror in the bathroom, which meant it was quite difficult for us to get make-up on.
“But my mum really didn’t want us to grow up worrying about our weight or what we looked like.”
The actress, raised Muslim by her Indian mum and Moroccan father, revealed: “I wasn’t allowed boyfriends when I was younger either. My parents were really strict.
“When I started modelling my dad told me I wasn’t allowed to wear any skirts that came above the knee.
“One of my first shoots was in a bikini, which of course I never showed him!”
Laila met snooker star Ronnie in 2012, when she was house-hunting.
She previously revealed: “It happened by accident. I was shown around Ronnie’s house by his father, who told his son about meeting me.
“Ronnie called the estate agent, a friend of mine, and asked me out via her. When he said he was a snooker player, I said, ‘Yeah, but what does he do for a living?’.
“I’d never heard of him as sport doesn’t interest me at all, although Ronnie’s won me over to snooker.”
The pair got engaged the following year but are yet to tie the knot.
Laila, who has been married before, explained: “I’d have to really gear myself up for a wedding.
“At the moment we’ve put it on the back burner and we’re enjoying our time. There’s no rush.”
Ronnie added: “It becomes a bit more important as you get older for legal reasons, but for now we’re OK.”
Like her character in The Effects Of Lying, their relationship hasn’t always run smoothly.
We told in 2020 how Ronnie’s sister Danielle claimed their mum Maria had labelled Laila a “prostitute” and “slag” in a toxic family feud.
Then, last year, Laila told how they had split.
During their time apart, she showed how confident she had grown in her body by sharing a sexy topless snap online.
But the couple worked out their differences and reunited last May — three months after announcing their break-up, which they had been keeping quiet.
Speaking on TV’s Loose Women, Laila said: “Me and Ronnie are back together, we found our way back. We just worked it out.
“Back when I announced it, we hadn’t been together for almost eight months at that time.”
The couple appear happier than ever and, last month, Ronnie revealed in his new book, Unbreakable, how Laila, who has a 15-year-old daughter Inez from a previous relationship, has helped to get his life back on track.
He wrote: “It’s good (his relationship with Laila). She’s great. I love her. She’s great company and I love being around her.
“She’s very supportive. I have to behave myself. I know when to go, ‘All right, you’re in charge’.
“But she’s also really good at going, ‘Listen, you’ve got a busy life, you’ve got a lot to do, just get on with it’.
“Now it feels a lot better, everyone’s just in a better place.
“I just want to see her and her daughter happy, and her family, who are like my family, happy.”
Despite having no qualms about stripping off, Laila admits she was left squirming on the set of her new show after shooting a sex scene with a 19-year-old as Sangeeta embarked on a fling with a toy boy.
Laila said: “I’ve always hated doing sex scenes. They are so awkward, but this one was the most awful one I’ve been asked to do. I had to do a sex scene with a teenager.
“It was his first one and I was so worried that he would be uncomfortable. I couldn’t stop thinking about how he was less than half my age.
“The scene was really raunchy in the script and we sat round with the director and talked about what we could do.
“The most important thing is that everyone is comfortable, and they were really good and we managed to find a way of filming that still showed what we needed but that was less explicit.
“I was worrying that he would find it too embarrassing, but when I was 19 I probably wouldn’t have worried about it as much.
“You just have to be a bit mechanical about it, but we have a laugh too.”
The raunchy role harks back to the one that catapulted her to fame in the early Noughties, as Amber Gates in legendary show, Footballers’ Wives.
Laila said: “Sangeeta isn’t a million miles from Amber. I seem to have a habit of getting cast in these roles.”
Footballers’ Wives — which also starred Zoe Lucker, 49, as Tanya Turner and Gary Lucy, 41, as striker Kyle Pascoe — has recently found a new generation of fans after it became available to stream on ITVX.
Laila said: “So many people have stopped me recently to speak about the show.
“It’s a great blast from the past. It would be amazing to bring it back. I’d love to see what they were all up to in their 40s and 50s.
“They’d all have teenage children who would be having their own catfights by now.
“They were a different level to the footballers’ wives we see now.
“I don’t think Amber would have had time for Wagatha Christie-type dramas.
“Instead she and Tanya would be rolling around tearing each other’s hair out in the players’ lounge.”
- The Effects Of Lying will be available on ITVX on July 6.