Kate Beckinsale reveals how love impacted her career choices

Kate Beckinsale allowed her love life to dictate her career decisions.

The British actress starred as Selene in five 'Underworld' movies and in retrospect, admits she only agreed to accepting the part so often because the franchise was directed by Len Wiseman, her now estranged husband.

The 42-year-old beauty - who stars as a vampire in the franchise - said: "The second one we absolutely did because we were just getting married. When he did a movie, he'd be tied up for more than two years, and we weren't ready to have that happen to us. That was 100 percent what that was about."

Although the London-born star does not harbour any regrets about having made the movies, she admits it probably overshadowed some of her other work over the last decade.

She told the Sunday Times newspaper: "I don't regret having done it, but I think I regret it has eclipsed some of the things that feel much more genuinely me. It's slightly taken over - it was running the show a bit, in a way that was surprising to me."

Kate is currently co-writing a script with author Emma Forest which is, in part, informed by her own experience of motherhood with her daughter Lily, whom she had with her former husband Michael Sheen in 1999.

She said: "My family life and my life as a mum have informed a lot of my choices. I don't feel like I was robbed of things. It's a whole life. It's not like you're all choosing from every single possible option and you just make some s**t choices.

"You also choose from what's available to you and what's practical in your life. I don't feel like I am done with it."