Life for Louisa Lytton feels quite intense right now. The former EastEnders star is about to embark on a 12-week theatre tour and she is excited about getting back to work after an extended maternity leave.

It will mean spells away from her daughter Aura, who turns two this week, and Louisa is grappling with a conflict of feelings that most working mums will recognise.

“I’m a mixed bag of emotions,” she tells us. “It was quite a big decision to go on tour for a few months and I’m so happy to be working again. But I’m also going to miss Aura and the life I’ve known for the last two years, so I’m totally split.”

Louisa, 34, made a brief return to the stage last November for a five-date run of The Vagina Monologues in Cheltenham – her first time away from Aura.

She missed her daughter so much that after the second show, she drove 100 miles through the night back to London to spend a few hours with her before driving back for the next evening’s performance.

“I needed to see her,” she says. “It’s hard to explain how that need feels. It’s a very physical, bodily experience. Aura was absolutely fine, having the time of her life! It was all me.

“I always wanted to be a mum, but you never know how much you can love another person until you have a baby.”

This time there won’t be much opportunity for a quick dash back home. Louisa is taking on the role of Jenny, following in the footsteps of Lily Allen, Jaime Winstone and Cheryl Tweedy. The touring production of the acclaimed supernatural thriller 2:22 A Ghost Story opens in Bath this week, before heading around the UK.

Louisa’s husband Ben Bhanvra, a 32-year-old businessman, can work remotely and will take Aura to join her on the road whenever possible. But it is going to be a complex juggling operation.

“Aura will be starting nursery two days a week and then on the other days she’ll either be with my mum or travelling up to see me with Ben,” says Louisa. “I’ll have the days free to be with her while Ben works and he’ll look after her in the evening while I’m doing the show.

“Some of the weeks I’ll be able to commute, but we’re just working it out week by week and playing it by ear.

“I was really lucky that I got to take time off after Aura was born. I knew I’d never get that time back and being with her has definitely done wonders for me.”

However, Louisa has relished getting back into rehearsals, which have reinforced just how much she loves acting.

“I didn’t realise how much I’d missed it,” she says. “I’ve loved being creative again, working with talented people and having adult conversations! It’s made me certain that now is definitely the right time to return to work.

“There’s so much pressure as a new mum, getting pulled in lots of different directions. I do feel like things are changing, especially in the acting industry and theatre world where there are often options to job share. It’s only my experience, but there seems to be a lot more understanding around working mums and our director for 2:22 has been amazing with that.”

Having a supportive partner also helps. Louisa and Ben were introduced by a mutual friend in 2017 when she was on tour with Grease and they have been inseparable ever since.

“I’d just come out of a relationship and I remember saying I was never going to meet anyone ever again,” she says.

“I was over it. But then Ben changed everything within weeks. We were living together after a few months and now I really don’t remember my life before him. It feels like he’s always been there.

“My previous relationship had taught me who I was and shown me what I deserved and Ben is just such a special, genuine person.”

They got engaged in 2019 and married in Tuscany last summer after Covid had twice forced them to cancel their wedding plans. “We got there in the end!” she says.

“We’d been planning on getting married and then trying for a baby. But with Covid, we never really knew when the rules would change so we just decided to do it the other way round.

“We thought we’d see what happened… and it happened! And it meant Aura was there at our wedding, which was lovely.”

Has married life changed anything in their relationship?

“No, I don’t think it has at all to be honest. Maybe because we’d had a baby, we already felt like such a strong unit.

“Watching Ben with Aura has made me love him even more. He’s such an incredible dad and she loves him so much. And I’m very fortunate, especially with doing what I do, that he’s so supportive.”

Although Louisa claims to be permanently “shattered”, she is as fresh-faced as ever and has barely aged since starting out in EastEnders as gangster’s daughter Ruby Allen in 2005. She puts that down to good genes.

“My mum and dad both look young as well, that’s where it’s from. Mind, I’ve recently stopped getting ID’d in shops so that’s upsetting,” she jokes.

“I’m not sure if looking young is an advantage or not in this industry – this latest role is the first I’ve had where I’m actually playing my age and playing a mum. It might mean I get more career longevity because I can play younger, or it might mean it takes me longer to progress to those big female leads.”

Away from acting, Louisa has a thriving clothing business, Aura Soul London. Named after her daughter, it was set up during maternity leave and sells outfits with a neutral palette that allows the whole family, male and female, to co-ordinate.

“It’s taken off really well,” she says. “A friend texted me the other day from Italy and someone was wearing our dungarees! That’s quite crazy for something which was initially about taking a bit of a chance.

“Being an actor is not always a full-time job, so I’ve always had other business ventures and other jobs. I’m doing emails and running our social media inbetween rehearsals, but we’re working on our second collection and I’m really proud of it.”

Having left EastEnders for the second time in 2021 while pregnant on screen and in real life, Louisa has no plans to return to Albert Square for a third stint – but neither is she ruling it out.

“I definitely could do it storyline-wise. Ruby was pregnant, so there’s a baby potentially waiting to turn up in Walford and James Bye [Martin Fowler] who played my husband at the time is still in the show. So, who knows? EastEnders was where I started out and I loved it there, so I’d never say never.”

For now, Louisa, who also starred as PC Beth Green in The Bill, is focused on 2:22, which she hadn’t seen before signing up.

“I was actually due to go and see [EastEnders co-star] Jake Wood in the original cast back in 2021,” she says.

“But I was heavily pregnant at the time and I couldn’t sit through a horror show in case my waters broke!

“Before we started rehearsals, I went to see Jaime Winstone playing Jenny and I’m so glad, because not only was she amazing, but the production itself is epic with all the jump scares, lighting and music.”

She is following in some big footsteps, but Louisa is determined to make the role her own.

“We’re a completely new cast so it’s a very different show to anything that’s gone before,” she says. “I want to do my own take on Jenny. It’s such a great script.”

She adds, “As long as I’m taking on projects I’m proud of and which push me, I’ll grow as an actor and as a person.

“I’m just hoping that this is the start of what will be a busy time. I’m ready for it.”

2:22 A Ghost Story will tour from 1 September until 1 June 2024

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