Kate Beckinsale thinks the key to great co-parenting is for both parents to "put your kids well-being first".

Kate Beckinsale

Kate Beckinsale

The 44-year-old actress has 18-year-old daughter with her former partner Michael Sheen, and although the pair split in 2003 they have maintained a close friendship with one another for the sake of their child, which Kate believes they have achieved because they both make their brood a priority and have a good sense of humour.

Speaking about her parenting tips on the American talk show 'Chelsea Lately', the brunette beauty said: "I think the thing is if you both really put your kids well-being first and share a sense of humour, you're sort of possibly there."

And the 'Total Recall' star has even warned her brood not to aspire to the unrealistic expectations thrust upon women to have an "unattainable body type", which sees some females boast big breasts, a pert posterior and a tiny waist.

She said: "You get the vote, but it means either you can't have any boobs because you have to be a flapper, that kind of thing ... Now you're supposed to have kind of a ridiculous a*s and ridiculous boobs and a tiny waist and everything else.

"And meanwhile a lot of political s**t is happening that maybe we can't have abortions anymore or that sort of thing."

Kate has also turned to author Susan Faludi's 'Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women' book to help steer Lily in the right direction.

She explained: "There's a moment in that [text] where she talks about how when, politically, women make big strides it seems to always happen that the fashion becomes very completely unattainable body type.

"And it's this sort of unconscious way of controlling women to distract them into a kind of self-loathing."