Claire Danes: I had to explore Billy Crudup romance

Homeland star Claire Danes didn’t know what the consequences would be when she embarked on a relationship with actor Billy Crudup when she was 24.

The 36-year-old actress dated her Stage Beauty co-star for four years but faced a wave of criticism after Billy left his pregnant girlfriend of eight years, Weeds actress Mary-Louise Parker, to be with her. The couple also had an age gap of more than 10 years but Claire felt she had no other option but to go with her feelings at the time.

“That was a scary thing," she told Howard Stern of the criticism during an appearance on his radio show on Monday (05Oct15). "That was really hard. I didn’t know how to not do that. I was just in love with him. And needed to explore that and I was 24... I didn’t quite know what those consequences would be."

Billy left Mary-Louise when she was seven-months pregnant with their son William. While Claire’s relationship with him didn’t last in the long term, she has no regrets about what happened.

“But it’s okay, I went through it,” she said, before adding that they are still on good terms. “We’re friendly, we’re friends.”

Following her split from Billy, Claire met actor Hugh Dancy and the couple tied the knot in 2009 in a secret ceremony in France. The pair welcomed son Cyrus in 2012.

While Claire has opened up about the 2003 incident, Mary-Louise has remained tight lipped.

However that could all change when she releases her upcoming memoir, Dear Mr. You.

The book is set for release on 10 November (15) and will include a series of letters from the actress to the men in her life, which is bound to include Billy.

During her chat with Howard, Claire also revealed that she never had a relationship with her My So Called Life co-star Jared Leto because of their seven year age gap.