Helen McCrory's relationship with Damian Lewis is "pure fluke".

Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory

Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory

The 48-year-old actress has been married to the 'Homeland' actor since 2007, after co-starring in 'Five Gold Rings' four years earlier - but Helen admits their romance came about by chance.

She said: "He just made me laugh a lot. And still does.

"Of course, everyone in life wants someone to love and be loved by, but I think I was always just engrossed and involved in work. And no, the timing was pure fluke, pure chance, it always is, isn't it?"

And Helen - who is currently starring in the political drama 'Fearless' - admitted her husband's supportive attitude has been key to their relationship over the years.

The actress - who has a daughter called Manon, 10, and a son called Gulliver, nine, with Damian - told Radio Times: "He is [supportive]. Much more so than I am. He was the one that persuaded me to do 'Fearless'.

"He told me, 'You have to do 'Fearless'. You have to.' I pointed out that he was going to be in America filming 'Billions' and in ten years I've always had the children when he goes away filming. But he replied, 'Well, I'll do it. Of course I can.'"

Helen also admitted to being "proud" of her husband's career success.

She said: "I'm so proud of him. As we know, just because you're talented doesn't mean you're going to be successful. So I'm really, really proud of him and really pleased for him. And he wears it well."

Meanwhile, Damian recently revealed Helen fears their children will develop American accents.

The English actor adopted the accent for his roles in hit dramas 'Homeland' and 'Billions', and his wife dreads that their kids will soon follow suit.

Damian previously said: "I don't do it [the accent] in front of them. They once spent a school term in the US and they started copying the accent in this comical, exaggerated way, elongating their vowels. I put a stop to that.

"My wife has a horror that the children will start talking American if we spend too much time out there."