Jessica Plummer will “always love” Jaz Hutchins.

Jessica Plummer

Jessica Plummer

The 28-year-old actress and singer split from the fellow actor last year after finding love when they were teenagers, and has now said that despite their split, she will always consider Jaz to be part of her “family” as they “fully share responsibility” of their four-year-old daughter, Noa.

Jessica said: “Noa’s dad and I have been in each other’s lives for such a long time. Yes, I am single right now, but I will always love him, he will always be my family and we fully share responsibility for Noa.

“It is very equal, with both of our jobs things are so up in the air, but he is a wonderful dad and I don’t have a bad word to say about him as a parent.

“Who knows what the future holds for us? But at the same time I’m really enjoying the freedom of single life and not having to answer to anybody. I’ve had too many headaches from too many boys in my life!”

The former ‘EastEnders’ star isn’t fond of making her love life public, but has said she’s come to learn people are “more invested” in her life now that she’s in the spotlight.

She added: “I think I need to be conscious of the fact people will be more invested in things I do and say which shouldn’t necessarily be public … But at the same time I am a human being just like everybody else and I’m not going to allow the very human things I do to make me question who I am as an individual.

“Other people’s opinion of me is none of my business and that’s the mentality I’ve adopted. I accept that more people will now have an opinion of me. If they think I’m great, fantastic; if they think I’m not, it’s none of my business. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

Jessica left ‘EastEnders’ in 2020 before going on to appear in ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’, and admitted she was worried people wouldn’t “like” the real her after getting attached to her soap character, Chantelle Atkins.

She told The Sun on Sunday’s Fabulous magazine: “I left EastEnders with a good reputation playing Chantelle, people loved her. So I did worry that now they were going to discover Jessica Plummer and not like me.

“So when I came out and realised the nation didn’t hate me, it was quite nice!

“2020 has shown that we never know what’s around the corner. So I just want to embrace whatever comes my way.”