‘I didn’t expect it to be happening at my age’ – James Nesbitt speaks about parenting a toddler as he turns 60

The Cold Feet star has committed to co-parenting his long-time partner’s two-year-old daughter and says it has given him a new lease of life as he ­approaches his 60th birthday.

Last year it was reported that the Ballymena actor is helping to raise Katy Gleadhill’s child after she conceived the child with an unnamed third party while she and Nesbitt were on a break from their relationship.

Nesbitt and the actress then rekindled their romance and the Co Antrim actor, who has two daughters Peggy (26) and Mary (22) from his previous marriage to Sonia Forbes-Adams, agreed to co-parent baby Fiadh.

His mother once told him: ‘You stay one age all your life — and unfortunately James, you’re 17’

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, the actor said he is “sanguine” about turning 60 next January.

“There’s no getting away from the fact that 60 is a hell of a number,” he said. “But my god, I’ve had a good oul’ time.”

Choosing to raise the question of his new fathering role himself, the actor said that he took a break from acting for “many reasons”, including the fact that “there is also a two-year-old girl in my life who I’m co-parenting and wanted to spend time with — and also to see more of my girls Peggy and Mary”.

Asked about his new role, he said: “I don’t talk about it that much, but it’s been great. I have Peggy and Mary, they’ve been the great love affairs of my life, and now I’m co-parenting ­Fiadh and she’s wonderful. She really is tremendous.”

Nesbitt, whose crime drama Bloodlands attracted 10 million views for its debut episode, said becoming a father figure for the youngster was a happy surprise late in his life.

“I didn’t expect that to be happening at my age — but she is a big, big part of my life now.”

He said that helping to raise a child once again was a positive experience.

“It reminds you of the simplicity and the purity of what children feel and want, and get hurt by and are tickled by.

“Every child teaches you a lesson and I have learned that a lot from Unicef.” (Nesbitt has been an Unicef ambassador since 2005.)

The most beautiful thing about love is the love one has for one’s children

“One thing you learn from Unicef is that all children are the same — they laugh at the same things and cry at the same things — it’s just that some of them have been born into unimaginably harsh and frightening circumstances. That’s what really reminds you of the extraordinary privilege and immense responsibility that bringing up a child brings.”

​He also spoke of his deepening relationship with his older daughters, Peggy and Mary, who he said “continue to take my breath away by the sheer depth of feeling I have for them, and the sheer trust and loyalty and love they have for me.

“I’m very lucky,” he added.

Speaking about his daughters, he said: “I have certainly known love many times — extraordinarily and exquisitely and painfully — but you know, the most beautiful thing about love is the love one has for one’s children. To me that is everything.

“It is so pure and brilliant and it changes and evolves and it is something to be grateful for.”

For decades Nesbitt’s made headlines for his personal life as much as for his film and television roles, thanks to a string of revelations about his hard-living lifestyle and romantic exploits. But now the actor, who starred in Match Point, The Hobbit and in crime drama The Secret, says age has made him less impulsive.

“In the past I was just a wee bit headstrong and a wee bit imperious and a wee bit rushing into things without thinking — not necessarily in work, but a wee bit in life sometimes.

“And that’s one of the things that age begins to tell you: just stop sometimes and think.”

Quoting his mother, he said she once told him: “You stay one age all your life — and unfortunately James, you’re 17.”

In the past year Nesbitt has taken a break from acting “quite deliberately” for the first time in his 40-year career.

“It’s not just important for me, but it’s important to give the public a break from watching the same person all the time,” he quipped.

The time out has given him the “hunger” for acting again.

I think the whole island feels for Rory McIlroy

“With a great level of success it almost becomes… not ‘too easy’ to get a job, but it becomes a pattern, where you just go from one thing to the next.

“It’s important to have a wee bit of hunger back, and I’m really passionate now about what I do — that’s a good state of mind to be in.”

Nesbitt was speaking as he was announced as one of the stars taking part in the celebrity pro-am at this year’s Amgen Irish Open, which takes place from September 11-15 at the Royal County Down Golf Club in Newcastle, Co Down. He will play alongside RTÉ Late Late Show presenter Patrick Kielty, former rugby players Johnny Sexton and Tommy Bowe, and Westlife singer Shane Filan.

Among the “pro” golfers confirmed for the official competition are Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Pádraig Harrington and Seamus Power.

Calling McIlroy a “most extraordinary talent”, he said he watched in dismay as the golfer finished runner-up at the US Open in June.

“I think the whole island feels for him and is desperate for him to make that major. Hopefully he’ll come back and answer his critics.”