Anne-Marie Duff reveals her 'most embarrassing moment' was when she accidentally joked about her sex life with James McAvoy to Prince Charles

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Anne-Marie Duff has revealed she accidentally joked to Prince Charles about her sex life with ex-husband James McAvoy.

The actress, 49, made the gaffe when the royal asked if their busy acting careers left them with enough time for one another.

She told The Observer magazine: 'My most embarrassing moment involved Prince Charles. I was at a premiere with my ex-husband.

Embarrassing moment: Anne-Marie Duff has revealed she joked about her sex life with James McAvoy during a conversation with Prince Charles

'Prince Charles said, "I suppose you two never see each other." I said, "We see each other in bed."'

Anne-Marie and James were married from 2006 and share a son, Brendan, 10, but the couple divorced in 2016. 

The star also opened up about her milestone 50th birthday this year, admitting it is 'scary'.

Royal gaffe: The actress, 49, said she joked about seeing her then-husband James in bed while talking to Prince Charles

Thinking ahead: The Shameless star also said she finds the idea of turning 50 this year 'scary'

She said: 'I’ll have a word with myself because everything is relative. You can be a miserable 23-year-old, then be pants-in-the-air happy at 50.'

It comes as Anne-Marie hits TV screens this week in the new BBC drama Salisbury Poisonings, based on the novichok poisoning in 2018.

She portrays 'superhero' Tracy Daszkiewicz, the director of public health at Wiltshire council at the time of the attack on former Russian military intelligence officer and double agent Sergei Skripal. 

Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who was visiting him at the time of the attack, both survived but a local woman named Dawn Sturgess died. Her boyfriend Charlie Rowley became critically ill, as did Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who had searched Skirpal's house.

Three-part BBC drama The Salisbury Poisonings, which is airing on BBC1 later this week, focuses on these people most directly affected by the attack, with Mrs Daszkiewicz at its centre.  

The programme was originally scheduled to premiere in early spring but was pushed back due to COVID-19. 

In June 2018, Tracy Daszkiewicz (left) was the director of public health at Wiltshire council, when a perfume bottle filled with nerve agent novichok was deployed in the city in a deadly attack. She is portrayed by Anne-Marie (right) in new BBC drama The Salisbury Poisonings

Speaking to The Times about the show, Duff acknowledged the iconocraphy such as the hazmat suits and restaurants closed to prevent any spread will strike a chord with viewers in a way that could not have been foreseen when the show was made. 

She said it also shines a light on the everyday heroes at the heart of a crisis like the poisonings - or the current coronavirus pandemic. 

Three-part BBC drama The Salisbury Poisonings, which airs on BBC1 this week, focuses on these people most directly affected by the attack, with Mrs Daszkiewicz (Duff) at its centre

'We've become phenomenally aware of all the people that are cannon fodder in our lives, the people that are really there are at the front, taking bullets for us,' she said. 

'I think this is a story about those people: the people who pick up after us, the people who take our rubbish away and who stack shelves and get paid sometimes less than the minimum wage, unfortunately. They are our superheroes, and this drama is about a few of those superheroes.' 

The show follows Daszkiewicz (Duff) as she works with colleagues to try to combat a lethal and invisible enemy that has appeared out of nowhere. 

The public health response team of which Tracy is a part instigates a lockdown. They close a local economy. They set up an elaborate system of contact tracing and testing. They source and distribute Personal Protective Equipment for use on the frontlines. And they deal, every day, with a terrified and frustrated public.  

Dawn Sturgess (MyAnna Buring), left, who died as a result of novichok poisoning

Duff was able to spend time with Daszkiewicz and her family and describes the public health expert as having 'titanium' self-belief who was able to take on the enormous responsibility she was suddenly given. 

She added: 'This was something so extraordinary, and to be surrounded by a group of strangers — predominantly male strangers — it was very frightening for her. Yet Tracy is somebody who takes responsibility, and that’s the story I was trying to tell.'

The programme is written by Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn, who admitted it is 'not always and easy watch'. 

The target was former Russian military intelligence officer and double agent Sergei Skripal. Skripal and his daughter Yulia, pictured, who was visiting him at the time, both survived

In a conversation with the BBC, they said: 'It deals with real trauma, experienced by real people, not very long ago. So why show it now? Because it is a story of people coming together in remarkable ways, finding strength in family and community. 

'It’s a story that reflects the internal reality of an emergency public health response, with all of its critical decisions. But perhaps most of all, because it reflects a kind of heroism that we have all come to recognise recently. 

'A heroism that is quiet - ordinary even - and that is wrapped up in a simple sense of civic duty that we had wrongly assumed was on the wane, but that really had only been lying dormant. An everyday kind of heroism that nonetheless changes the world.' 

The Salisbury Poisonings: Who's who in the BBC retelling of events

Poisoned police officer: Rafe Spall (right) plays Nick Bailey (left), a Detective Sergeant who became critically ill after he searched Sergei Skripal's house. The events changed his life forever. Speaking on the role, Spall said: 'It's been really harrowing for Nick Bailey and his family and I just want to do them a service of getting their story out there'

Dawn Sturgess (left) died after she was given the perfume bottle of novichok by her partner Charlie Rowley at his flat in nearby Amesbury. She put the liquid on her wrists. On playing Dawn, MyAnna Buring (right) said: 'So many of these big headline stories feel so removed from us and in particular, in the case of Dawn, she was dismissed. People are never just headlines, they're real human beings with real lives'

Dawn's boyfriend Charlie Rowley (left) was left in a coma as a result of the poison. Commenting on portraying Rowley, Johnny Harris (right) said: 'These are real people that are involved, and this is not some sort of spy drama, with things being blown up. This is a sensitive story about real people who are in the middle of this ludicrous affair.'