"I'm not going to start worrying that Ewan has had an affair"
You Magazine July 2001

Swish St John's Wood in Northwest London on a sunny but breezy day. I am sitting outside Eve and Ewan McGregor's local restaurant surrounded by glamorous-looking women in Armani and MaxMara. I feel distinctly underdressed until, that is, Mrs McGregor arrives, looking the very height of laid-back chic- gamine, make up free, too cool to care. She flashes me an enormous smile. Like her husband, who is famously free of Hollywood airs and graces, there is no side to Eve McGregor. An intelligent, straightforward Frenchwoman, with good manners and a childlike curiosity about the world, she is beautiful but interestingly so, stylish but not over-groomed.

She is, you gather, a woman who would much rather blend quietly into her surroundings- she is a set designer by profession- than have flashbulbs pop in her face. As she is the first to admit, only her home gives any hint that she is married to a hot young film star with a sizeable fortune in the bank- 'we have so much space, such a luxury.' In May, Eve attended the Cannes Film Festival where her husband was promoting his new film, Moulin Rouge, in which he costars with Nicole Kidman. Having left their five year old daughter, Clara, with Eve's mother in Paris, the couple had a ball- in spite of the salacious rumours that did the rounds after Ewan and Kidman giggled and flirted for the cameras.

Both Kidman and Ewan have denied any involvement, but that didn't stop press speculation. 'I don't usually read the papers,' says Eve, 'but I did in Cannes. Then I got a text message from a friend. It said: "I have read all the press. I am so sorry." I was like, sorry for what? I thought it was funny. It was so mad. I mean, am I going to start worrying that Ewan has had an affair with Nicole Kidman? Hello?' She is not, she insists the jealous type at all. "I have only ever felt insecure once,' she says. 'It was when I was pregnant with Clara, and Ewan was doing Trainspotting. He had a sex scene with Kelly Macdonald, who's delightful. I was putting on all this weight, and she was a beautiful fresh flower. Maybe it was my hormones, but it took me until after the birth of Clara not to tremble when I saw her. She had no idea; she'll probably read this and laugh. But that is the only time I have ever felt jealous. I feel loved, and we are close, so I know if Ewan likes somebody. I trust people. Pherhaps that is a mistake, but I do.' While attending Cannes, the pair stayed at the Hotel du Cap in nearby Cap d'Antibes, a luxury which as an impoverished student, Eve used to dream about being able to afford.

They were driven everywhere and went to lots of parties. Now however, it is business as usual for them both. Ewan is in Morocco, shooting Black Hawk Down, a film about America's disastrous foray into Somalia, and Eve, who is six and a half months pregnant with their second child (she recently let slip that they are expecting another daughter) is back in London taking care of Clara and promoting her favourite good cause: Everman Kids, a Saturday morning film club for children at the Everyman cinema in Hamstead, North London. Eve, who is passionate about the need to cultivate the tastes of children, is more than a mere figurehead for the club; she also chooses the programme. 'We show a mixture of good mainstream films like James and the Giant Peach and The Secret Garden, as well as less well-known films, and there is a workshop afterwards. I want children to have a choice. In Paris, there are more small independent cinemas than there are in London. There's something very wrong if the only option available is a visit to the local multiplex.'

Around 30 children (including Clara) attend the club each week- a figure that needs to grow if it is to survive. 'We must convince parents that their children are going to have a good time,' says Eve. 'But I have great plans for the future. (Last month Ewan made a personal plea before Camden Council for the cinema to be granted a public entertainment license, and was successful) After the cinema has been refurbished, I am hoping that we will get a system to enable children to watch foreign films while listening to a simultaneous translation. Then they will be able to see treasures from around the world. I get excited just thinking about it.' Eventually Eve would like to see similar clubs springing up elsewhere in the country.

Eve met Ewan six and a half years ago on the set of the TV series Kavanagh QC, Eve was working with the art department; her future husband was playing a rapist. The way she tells it, he did all the chasing. 'Ewan asked me out, definitely. I hadn't even looked at him before then. He was a 23 year old actor, five years younger than me, and I was in a relationship. But he was serious and….' She stares into the middle distance and sighs- 'here we are.' They married a year and a half later, in the South of France. 'We were broke at the time,' she says. 'So we borrowed a house that belonged to Ewan's then agent. We wanted a countryside wedding. The idea was that we would be there for two weeks, get married halfway through, and all our friends would come and have a holiday at the same time. We were married by the village mayor. I wore a dress given to me by a friend who had a shop in Beverly Hills- I can't remember the designer, but it was beautiful. Our wedding became something amazing thanks to the kindness of our friends.' But wasn't she worried that her 23 year old actor- who had yet to become famous- wasn't much of a safe bet? Apparently not: Eve, you see, had done her research.

'I spent a lot of time watching him with his parents, rather than just listening to what he said about himself. I found that he had a strong sense of family, of honour, of loyalty. If you are going to form a lifelong partnership with someone, these are good qualities. OF COURSE, there was another Ewan, the actor, extremely sociable and outgoing, with his leather jacket and his motorbike. But I knew there was something solid about him as a human being.' The age difference- Eve is now 35- has never been an issue. 'It's only five years. It's not as though we have lived through different things. Sometimes I look in the mirror and think, "Oh, I don't want to look older than him," but that's a vanity thing, not an intellectual thing. It doesn't take up much space in my brain.' Even as a little girl, mirror-gazing was not the kind of activity in which Eve indulged. Her parents, both university lecturers encouraged her to spend her time more productively.

At the age of six, she and her younger sister were taken by their mother- a devoted Maoist- to live in China (her parents divorced shortly afterwards). 'My mother first visited the country at the height of the Cultural Revolution, and she met Mao Tse Tung . So to go and live there - she taught French at the University of Beiji- was an ideological dream come true for her. Of course, her views changed dramatically when she realised what was being don to the people she loved.' Eve spent long periods of her childhood in China and as a result, speaks fluent Mandarin and still loves eating jellyfish. 'China was the best,' she says. 'I think of it with such nostalgia. In a way, it was a very austere place to grow up. Everybody always seemed to be in uniform. But it wasn't gloomy. The Chinese have such a pride in their countr, a real joy. It was an amazing time. ' Her mother, Eve says, expected her to do well at school, although she was a lazy child. 'She always pushed us. When we came back to Paris, she made sure we had a Chinese tutor, so that I wouldn't forget the language, and we learned painting and calligraphy, too.'

Although she is still close to her mother, Eve rarely sees her father:' It sounds harsh, but he wasn't interested in us until we were 15 and could have an intelligent conversation with him. Luckily, I have a brilliant stepfather. My mother had a definite idea bout the way she wanted to bring up her children, and I respect that so much, even though I didn't always agree at the time. Ewan and I are trying to do the same with Clara. With children it's not just about feeding and clothing them; it's about their brains, too.' Her daughter she tells me proudly is bilingual and translated for her Scottish grandmother when she was just two and a half. Eve went back to China to do a degree in Chinese, and it was when she was there that she decided to become a set designer. 'I was staying in the same place as Bertolucci when he was directing The Last Emperor,' she says. 'I was 19, and I wanted to be a journalist. But I went for dinner with the crew and I found myself thinking, "I want to try this." Somehow, I ended up doing calligraphy on the film, and I fell in love with that world.'

She moved to London, got as much experience as she could, and then took a postgraduate degree in film design at Kingston University. Since then she has worked on numerous projects, notably Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. 'It was a challenge, ' she says. 'We had no budget. But I liked working for Guy (Ritchie, the film's director). He can be tough and single-minded, but we got on. He asked me to do Snatch, but I had to turn it down because we were in Australia while Ewan did Moulin Rouge.' She is quick to pint out that she chose between her work and family a long time ago. 'There are women with two nannies and their careers are brilliant. I do not have a nanny and my career is not brilliant. But Ewan and I want to be hands-on parents, and I can't do more than a couple of films a year because the hours are just too long.'

Her husband may hang out with the rich and famous- the Primrose Hill set of Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Jonny Lee Miller and Sean Pertwee- but Eve is still in touch with her friends from way back. 'I have made a few friends since I got married, but I am not extremely sociable. Ewan and I are different in that respect- although he is changing now he is 30 and he and I are more in tune than ever. I can't do parties all the time. I need quiet time with my books [She loves reading, especially Balzac and Maupassant]. We may have moved on financially, but we are very grounded. I cannot bear the idea of putting someone on a pedestal just because they are famous. Ewan is not the type to put pictures of himself up around the house. He loves his work and I admire it, but image is irrelevant.' She is, she says looking forward to the birth of their baby daughter in October- especially since Ewan has cleared his diary for two months. "He would have liked a song, but I really don't mind. I am just glad that the early months are over because I felt sick and was tired all the time. Clara is used to being the centre of attention, so we will have to make sure she doesn't feel any less important once the baby comes along.' And with that, she gets up and sets off to pick up her daughter from school. Her neighbourhood, one of the most chi-chi in the capital, looks green and sparkling.

Sometimes, I say, she must have to pinch herself. How did she end up here? She smiles and shakes her head.

'Everything is fragile,' she says. 'I don't take anything for granted.'

And the funny thing is, I believe her.