Puffing Billie: Toddler gets smoke in his face as actress mum enjoys a roll-up

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By Beth Hale

Mummy's such a drag: The fumes from Miss Piper's roll-up cigarette leave young Winston's blond head enveloped in smoke


With her young son only inches away, Billie Piper takes a deep drag on her roll-up and blows smoke in his face.

The 27-year-old actress made great play of the fact that she gave up cigarettes while pregnant with Winston, now aged 21 months.

But she appeared to be making up for lost time during a visit to a pub garden with her actor husband Laurence Fox and another couple.

Initially, either Fox or his wife would take turns looking after Winston while the other moved away to puff on a roll-up.

But as the afternoon progressed they became more relaxed and eventually, as the picture shows, made no effort to distance the toddler from the tobacco cloud.

Earlier this year former pop singer Miss Piper, who went on to star in Doctor Who and Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, admitted that her greatest vices were 'roll-up cigarettes and red wine'.

She added: 'I didn't smoke through my pregnancy, and I thought I did really well not to for nine months.


Bad habits: Billie, who gave up cigarettes when she was pregnant, pictured enjoying a roll-up with husband Laurence Fox


'When Winston was born, I decided I didn't want to smoke cigarettes any more, as they are full of chemicals, so I turned to roll-ups instead. I do love them.'

The damaging effects of passive smoking are well documented.

In March, a report from the Royal College of Physicians revealed that tens of thousands of children in the UK every year develop asthma, chest infections and ear problems because they are exposed to smoke from their parents' cigarettes.

This led to a call for a ban on smoking in cars, and for the ban on smoking in enclosed spaces to be extended to parks, playgrounds and other areas where children congregate.


The actress, who has admitted roll-up cigarettes are her 'greatest vice', pictured with Laurence and Winston


Martin Dockrell, director of research for the charity Action on Smoking and Health, said: 'There are two good reasons not to smoke in front of children.

'First, especially in enclosed areas second-hand smoke seriously damages a child's health and even risks causing a cot death.

'The second reason is that the more a child sees adults around them smoking the more likely they are to try smoking themselves as they get older.

'In fact only one in five adults smokes but children often overestimate this and the more they do, the more they are likely to smoke themselves.'


Abstinence: Billie gave up smoking while she was pregnant with Winston
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