Lena Headey may play one of Game of Thrones’ most unfeeling characters in the form of Cersei Lannister.

But the Huddersfield-raised actress has given her most heartfelt interview yet after opening up about her experiences of post-natal depression and life growing up in the town.

Lena, who grew up in Shelley, talked about struggling with her mental health while filming the first series of the globally-successful show after having her first son, Wylie, in 2010.

Speaking to co-star Maisie Williams in the interview in The Edit magazine, the 43-year-old mum-of-two said: “Filming was really horrendous – I was postnatally depressed but I didn’t know it. I saw a doctor for the medical check and I just burst into tears.’

“She said I was postnatally depressed and I went, ‘Am I? Why is that?’ I saw a great guy and he sorted me out, but I did the first year on Game of Thrones in that space, figuring out motherhood and going through a weird time personally. It was tricky.”

Lena also talked about growing up in Huddersfield, recounting a tale from her adolescence where she sneaked her boyfriend into the house.

“I would sneak boys into my house all the time”, she confessed. “We lived in a tiny little house in Yorkshire with a tiny little landing and one night my boyfriend got up to have a wee and found my mum sitting naked on the toilet.

“She was screaming, he was screaming and my dad comes out of the bedroom and literally chased him out of the house, naked.”

Lena stars in Series 7 of Game of Thrones which starts on Monday, July 17.