Phoebe Dynevor says she is ‘full of anxiety’ after finding fame in Bridgerton

Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor has said she is “full of anxiety” after rocketing to fame in the Netflix period drama and is worried about “letting someone down”.

The actress, 26, was thrust into the spotlight with her role as Daphne Bridgerton in the raunchy series.

She told Harper’s Bazaar UK: “I don’t think anyone knows how to handle that.

“I worry about everything. I’m full of anxiety. I have a fear of failure, letting someone down, contradicting myself.

“You see what it is for your mental health to be in the public eye.

“I meditate, I have a therapist, I walk every day. There are things I do to ground myself, because it’s quite hectic at the moment.”

Dynevor, who is the daughter of Coronation Street star Sally Dynevor, said she was taken aback by the success of Bridgerton and only realised the impact it would have on her life when she found photographers outside her front door.

She said: “I thought it was just another project. I didn’t think anyone was going to care.

“We were all in lockdown, stuck at home and nothing changed.

“In the first season, people were saying to me, ‘You know this could be huge’, but you don’t ever believe that, and you will never understand what it feels like until it happens to you.

“It’s quite out-of-body and weird.

“It was only when we started being able to leave the house again and there were photographers outside – which was really scary – that I realised if I went out in my pyjamas, there might be someone taking pictures.”

Despite her role as an aristocrat in the series, Dynevor said she wants to represent her own family background on screen, adding: “My mum grew up in Oldham and was going to work at a cigarette factory till she decided to go to drama school, so there’s part of me that wants to represent the Northern working-class background.”

She continued: “What I’ve started to realise about this industry is that the highs can be really high, but the lows can be really low, so it’s finding that middle ground and centring oneself.

“It’s really important for me and my sanity to work on projects that I love and develop characters that I think are really interesting – that’s the excitement for me.”

The November issue of Harper’s Bazaar is on sale from October 7.