Joanne Froggatt says entertainment career beats corporate job for motherhood

Joanne Froggatt has opened up about her struggles with motherhood while balancing her career and raising her young daughter in a candid conversation.

The MobLand actress, 46, welcomed her daughter in September 2024 with boyfriend Mark Turner.

However, she was previously married to her consultant ex-husband, James Cannon, for eight years before they split in 2020. 

Joanne, who played maid Anna Bates for the full six series of Downton Abbey and plays Jan Da Souza in MobLand, admitted she sometimes struggles with 'juggling' family time while she often works away a lot.

Speaking on Josh Smith's Great Chat Show, Joanne explained: 'I'm in an industry that is in some ways fantastic for being a working mum and in some ways not because you have to be away from home and then you have to make the decision.

'You know my daughter is so young, I don't want to be away from her so we are travelling together. But there's a huge amount of logistics that go with that as well. 

'I'm lucky that I have had periods in my work life where I have a lot of downtime at home, which if I was in a corporate world, say, I wouldn't have those hours with my daughter.

'So it's a good industry for that, and it is an industry where I would be able to bring her into work if I need to. Whereas lots of people don't have that opportunity, but for any working parent, the juggle is real.

Joanne also shared her 'terrifying' fears of being a mother to a daughter in a world that is 'ridiculously harsh on the way women look'.

She added: 'I find it kind of terrifying being the mother of a daughter, being a mother of a girl. I hope there's a huge shift by the time she grows up because.'