She’s caused a lot of drama as Ruby Allen on EastEnders, but off screen, Louisa Lytton prefers the quiet life with husband Ben Bhanvra and their three-year-old daughter Aura. The 36-year-old actress, who returned to the BBC soap last year after three years, has been with Ben since 2017, when they met through mutual friends. They got engaged in February 2019, before tying the knot in Italy in July 2022. Here, she talks about motherhood and marriage…
What makes you truly happy?
Right now, just being with Aura. We could be sat on the grass doing nothing. Otherwise, when I’m at work. It’s quite nice to just sit still with Aura and not really do anything. My new favourite thing is when Aura wakes up in the morning and she comes into my room and says, ‘Mummy, do you need a cuddle?’ The first few times she did it, I was like, ‘No, it’s 5am.’ But now I love it. It’s actually my favourite time at the moment, she gets in and we have a talk. I’ve started to embrace it more.
How has your relationship with Ben changed since Aura’s arrival?
It just changes. I think the first few months, I was absolutely obsessed with her and Ben felt quite pushed out. It was like Aura and I against the world, and he was like, ‘I’ll make dinner then.’ My mind is constantly on her whereas beforehand, there was more time for our relationship. But I think it’s a natural shift.
How do you both navigate that?
We only started speaking about it recently. This is our new family life. We are lucky: we get to go away together and have date nights, but it’s just not the same. There’s always so much that needs to be done and I’m so stressed. But we will get to the other end once we have more sleep and more patience!
Louisa spoke on the Made by Mommas podcast
