Anna Friel, 32, the former Brookside star who has now moved to Hollywood, has revealed that the strain of balancing her busy on screen career with being mum to 3-year-old Gracie, has left her on the verge of collapse.

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"I'd be a liar if I said it was easy," she told Closer magazine. "You just have to keep going - keep looking forward. If you stop, you're like, 'Oh God, it's too overwhelming'. And believe me, I've had my fair share of those moments."

The star, who continued to work after Gracie's birth, revealed the hardest time was going seven days with no sleep while filming Goal! in Spain in 2005 when Gracie was still a baby.

"You want to be there for your child at night and I was still breastfeeding, but then I'd get to the point where I couldn't sleep when I did go to bed," she said. "The ground was moving and I felt I was going to faint. It went on and on. Eventually, a doctor gave me a sleeping tablet and I slept for a weekend."

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Anna's comments follow that of other celebs, including Gwen Stefani, on the pressures of juggling career and motherhood.

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