Billie Piper opens up about the challenges of co-parenting with Laurence Fox: ‘It’s f***ing hard’

Billie Piper has opened up about the difficulties of co-parenting with her controversial ex-husband – the right-wing “anti-woke” campaigner Laurence Fox – in a rare, candid interview about their divorce.

Piper has kept quiet about her relationship with Fox since the couple split in 2016 after nine years together.

In a recent interview with British Vogue, the former Doctor Who star said that co-parenting her two children, 11 and 15, with Fox amid the controversies surrounding him comes “with enormous difficulty”.

“I keep them close. That’s all I can do. What is paramount for me is the privacy and anonymity of my children. They deserve not to be extensions of the parents and to forge their own identities,” she said.

“I’ve had to make some choices and a divorce speaks for itself. Or at least it should.”

The Vogue interview took place days before a High Court judge ruled that Fox had committed libel on social media in January 2024, but wasn’t published online until 15 March.

The Reclaim Party founder appeared in court after calling Drag Race UK star Crystal, Coronation Street actress Nicola Thorp, and former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake “paedophiles” after they labelled him as “racist” for urging his followers to boycott Sainsbury’s in 2020 because it celebrated Black History Month.

Fox denied being a racist and was also forced to defend his use of an image which turned four Progress Pride flags into a Nazi swastika.

According to court transcripts previously seen by PinkNews, Fox said he had no objection to the original rainbow flag but rather objected to Pride flags that included black, brown, pink, and blue stripes to celebrate queer people of colour and the transgender community.

He said: “What I object to in terms of the Pride flag is the black chevron which is referring to Black Lives Matter specifically… Black Lives Matter is a profiteering Ponzi scheme.

“The chevron below it, the brown one, that is just for all brown people regardless: Mongolia to Manitoba. That is just, ‘Anyone brown, you’re covered there’. Then the baby blue and the baby pink are the symbols of transgenderism and I think transgenderism, especially being pushed on children as it is in this day, is evil and therefore I don’t think there’s anything progressive about this Pride flag.”

On Father’s Day 2023 (Sunday 18 June), the former actor shared a video of himself setting light to Progress Pride flag bunting he had hung up on a fence in his garden.

“The most holy month of child mutilation, Fox said. “This is what I think of your disgusting, vile, child sacrificial flag.” He then used a lighter to set fire to each flag, repeatedly stating “goodbye” to each one as it caught light.

Fox later said that being accused of being racist has left him in financial ruin and destroyed his career. He claimed that it was “a career-ending word, and a reputation-destroying allegation” that left him without representation for his acting career and unable to get a mortgage.

He wrote in a statement that it was a “baseless” accusation.

That is just the latest in a long line of controversies Fox has been involved in. He was recently suspended from GB News over “misogynistic” comments he made on air about a female journalist.

In a segment on Dan Wootton’s GB News show, Fox asked on air what “self-respecting man” would “climb into bed” with reporter Ava Evans. Wootton didn’t object to his language.

They were both suspended by the channel after the broadcast and Fox was later fired due to the backlash, particularly after the broadcasting regulator Ofcom received 8,867 complaints due to Fox’s “sexist, misogynistic, and offensive” rant.

In her Vogue interview, Fox’s ex-wife Piper implied that she wanted people to avoid telling her about Fox’s various controversies but that it didn’t always work: “I don’t read it but everyone wants to talk about it. Sometimes I have to say to people: ‘Please don’t bring this to me, now or ever’.”

Despite the issues Piper faces with Fox, she said that she encourages herself to stay “positive”.

She added: “I’ve learnt I have a lot of resilience I didn’t know I had. I’ve had to learn the hard way that you can only control yourself and how you react to things. It’s really f***ing hard.”