Vicky McClure says it's "disappointing" that childless women still get asked about when they are going to have a baby.
The Line of Duty actress, 40, married her long-term fiancé, the producer and writer Jonny Owen, last summer in her home city of Nottingham.
While she enjoys a close relationship with stepdaughter Katie, McClure says she often is asked by people when she plans on having a child of her own.
Sharing her frustration in a new interview with The Times, she explained: “Most people wouldn’t ask a friend that question.
“I don’t know what the fascination is, because it’s so personal. And would you go up to somebody in the street and ask? But we all know the difficulties and we all know the choices. Why would it be in any way connected to what I do for a living?”
“It just shows how backward we still are... I’m not surprised [I get asked] but it’s a bit disappointing and a bit lazy. It’s just a bit boring for me, to be honest," she added.
McClure is set to return to screens on January 28 in the second series of ITV crime drama Trigger Point.
The This Is England star will be reprising her role as Lana Washington, a former soldier turned bomb disposal expert with the Metropolitan Police, as she tries to foil terrorist threats across London.
Last month, she was awarded an MBE by the King for her services to drama and charity.
The nod was in recognition of her founding Our Dementia Choir in 2019 after her late grandmother Iris was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and found comfort in music.
The choir is made up of a group of people who are living with dementia.