Jane Fallon has come to terms with being known as Ricky Gervais' girlfriend.

Ricky Gervais and Jane Fallon

Ricky Gervais and Jane Fallon

The 57-year-old author has written six top ten best-selling novels but despite her own success, she admitted she is still known as the girlfriend of 'The Office' star but has now revealed she still finds it strange when people look at her long-term boyfriend.

Speaking to The Times newspaper, Jane said: "Sometimes we'll go somewhere and people will be looking at him and I'll think, 'Why are they looking at my boyfriend?' It's actually easy to forget. And that's all right. We made a decision very early on that we were going to not do those coupley things, the spreads in the magazines and stuff like that. It is a mental health choice as much as anything else. With my 'I want to do something with my own life' obsession I didn't want to be known as the partner of a celebrity before anything else. It can get a bit frustrating. If I die I know the news item would be, 'Partner of Ricky Gervais and novelist dies.'

"That would come first. But I've come to terms with it. As long as they do still add the 'and novelist' that will be fine."

The couple first met back in 1984 and have been together since but both agreed that neither of them are parenting material.

She said: "I'd be such an anxious mother that I'd make them anxious.

"I just feel that if you're going to have kids you need to believe that emotionally you can give them a really good life.

"It doesn't matter how much money you've got. I felt quite strongly that that's important. I think going into it knowing that you're going to be rubbish and maybe bringing up these anxious, nervous children looking over their shoulder and too scared to do anything in life."