She said: "I guess I felt relieved after my birthday because everybody anticipates it so much for you that now we can all just relax. It's done. I had a lovely party with all of my kids and kin, and we had a great time. "However, it doesn't mean anything really.

But getting older to me is nice anyway. I guess that there is a sense of relief. I think you are released from certain concepts as you get older." Julia also revealed she is concentrating on her personal life now, rather than her professional prospects.

She added: "My career is at half-pace now. I wasn't really cranking a lot of movies out anyway. I've just never really been that driven to go, go, go. You have to take time to recover, enjoy things and keep sort of replenishing that well. "I've always been one to appreciate that luxury of being able to have a certain pace to things.

But now it's just great to have my day so full and busy with such different kinds of things."