Feature for Finding Neverland

English rose Kate Winslet may be one of the country's leading actresses - but when it comes to talking about her family she simply can't stop her emotions running wild.

The screen beauty broke down in tears while gushing about her love for husband Sam Mendes and children during a recent television interview. She blubbed: "I had a baby. His father is Sam Mendes. He is really wonderful and this is an amazing and emotional time and I see him being a wonderful father."

But the incident is not the first time the star has broken down - she was inconsolable when Mendes was branded a "marriage wrecker." The beautiful actress met the 'American Beauty' director just four months after her split from husband Jim Threapleton, the father of her first child Mia, in December 2001.

She was so devastated by reports that Sam had caused the rift in her three-year marriage that she collapsed in tears.

Kate once revealed: "I cried a lot. I really cried. I'd just got out of the shower one morning and I thought about it all and I literally collapsed on the floor sobbing for about an hour, going, 'How can they do this to me?' I know why my marriage broke down. I know that it had nothing at all to do with Sam.'"

The actress originally insisted that she had the "ideal divorce." But later she admitted she was fed up of being made to look like the break-up with Jim was all her fault.

She explained at the time: "People saw my ex-husband as the underdog. It was horrible, really horrible."

Despite the heartache, the actress has always been attracted to men in the film industry.

She dated actor Stephen Tredre, 12 years her senior, between 1991 and 1995. He tragically later died from bone cancer.

Kate then married first husband Jim, who she met when he was assistant director on her movie 'Hideous Kinky,' and the couple had daughter Mia on 12 October, 2000. Unfortunately, this did not keep them together, and a series of publicised rows eventually led to the break-up.

After the divorce, Kate was said to be furious at reports that she was spending all her time at showbiz parties with Sam, while Jim was left looking after their baby daughter Mia.

She said: "There came a time in England when I thought, 'How can I go on living like this?' - particularly when so many people would call me and say, 'Did you see that thing saying Mia lives with Jim?' And that I was always out at the theatre, attending premieres and blah blah blah. That made me absolutely furious because my child lives with me and I'm with her all the time."

Nowadays, Kate and Sam are seen as a perfect showbiz couple and she thinks he is a fantastic father to their son, Joe, who was born last Christmas, despite his one-time playboy reputation.

She recently gushed: "Sam's absolutely amazing and incredibly hands-on. He's always been so wonderful with Mia and it's more wonderful for me to see how he is with Joe."

The couple's secret marriage on the Caribbean island of Anguilla in May last year came as a compete surprise even to friends and family. It was during that holiday-turned-honeymoon that the 28-year-old actress first suspected that she was pregnant.

But it hasn't always been Kate's family or films which have made her the focus of media attention.

Her fluctuating weight has also been the source of many stories. Born in Reading, Berkshire, she has said she weighed 185lbs at school and suffered the nickname Blubber.

However, this didn't stop her landing a host of television and stage roles, including a part in a Sugar Puffs cereal commercial.

Her big screen break came in 'Heavenly Creatures' - made by Oscar-winning 'Lord of the Rings' director Peter Jackson - where she played a young girl who helps her best friend murder her mother.

As her career gained momentum, Kate left school and immediately her roles grew more prominent, and she received her first Oscar nominated after playing Marianne in Emma Thompson's Oscar-winning 'Sense and Sensibility.' She soon became a role model for women sporting fuller figures, especially after her second Oscar-nomination in Hollywood blockbuster 'Titanic.' However, Kate stunned fans when she admitted that GQ magazine had used computer technology to make her look slimmer during a photo shoot. A week later it was alleged she used a body double in other pictures, which she denied.

When the revelations made national headlines, the actress defended her decision to allow GQ to airbrush her pictures, claiming it proved celebrities weren't really as perfect as they appeared to be. She said at the time: "I'm very aware, because I did it myself, that young women look at publications like that and see a woman looking beautiful, looking sexy and in their mind looking perfect. Therefore these women strive to look like this perfection. But that isn't real. It is important to say magazines do this - they do make perfection."

However, Kate looked stunning in a pale blue Ben De Lisi gown at the recent London premiere of her new movie, 'Finding Neverland', in which she stars opposite Johnny Depp's 'Peter Pan' author JM Barrie. And the reason behind her glowing appearance is clear - with a devoted husband and two beautiful children, Kate admits she is "genuinely happy" for the first time in her life.

- Jo Chase / BANG