Former Bond girl Alison Doody said she has “no regrets” about giving up her career as a Hollywood star to return to Ireland to raise her children.
Doody was one of the hottest properties in movies in the late 1980s after appearing as Roger Moore’s love interest Jenny Flex in A View To A Kill when she was just 18.
In the following few years, Doody starred opposite some of the biggest names in film including Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Mickey Rourke and Pierce Brosnan.
That may now seem like a lifetime away to Doody, who has spent the last two decades living in Kildare raising her two daughters.
Doody married businessman Gavin O’Reilly in 1994 and chose to give up her acting career to raise a family. In 2016, she told the Irish independent: “Acting was out of sight, out of mind. I just didn’t have the same access.
“A lot of the roles I had got were due to someone else pulling out. You have to be there at the right time, at the right moment.
“Living in Kildare, suddenly finding myself pregnant, I just thought this was my next big job rearing my girls. I have no regrets about that whatsoever.”
The Dublin beauty spent more than ten years away from acting and admits that sometimes she found it difficult. She added: “I got so depressed at times. I was struggling not working.
“Once you have worked and you’re independent, it’s hard to give up that independence.
“It’s great being a mum, it’s fulfilling, but you need an outlet.”
Doody’s latest role is in Belgian film Brother and she says she is delighted to be acting again, although is a changed character from her younger days.
“To be honest, I’m not as ambitious. My focus is my children, first and foremost, and my happiness.”
The real life mystery of what Maureen O’Hara whispered to make John Wayne look so shocked
Action hero Tom Cruise was once attacked by an old man in a Kerry pub
Billy Connolly says public should ignore politicians and listen to comedians
