In the privacy of her Malibu, California home, Stephanie Beacham is a far cry from Dynasty's Sable Colby and other viperine characters she's given life to on the small screen and on stage.

On the sunny afternoon we came to visit, the 44-year-old star revealed her real-life role to us - that of homemaker for Phoebe, 16, and Chloe, 14, the daughters she had during her seven-year marriage to actor John McEnery. The girls had just recently returned from their boarding school in Somerset for the summer holidays.

But for Stephanie, behind this composed image of motherhood lies the memory of her recent break-up with cameraman Steven Silver, the man who has shared her life for the last four years.

Stephanie, what's happened between Steve and you?

"Steve and I aren't together anymore. Let's just say that it's very difficult being a successful woman and also having success in your private life.

It got to the point where Steve began to feel insufficient, inadequate, and there was really nothing I could do about it. After four years, and despite the love we still have for each other, he's had to go off and make his fortune and find his destiny."

Male egos have a hard time accepting that their women can be more successful than they are. Is that what happened?

"No. I'm an actress, Steve a cameraman. Pictures of technicians generally don't come out in the papers. What happened was that as his work-load increased he felt the differences between us, and that was the beginning of the end."

Your split coincided more or less with your return to the theatre. The Vortex is a very intense play. Do you think it played a role in your break up?

"The first four months of the year were very hard for me. I'd love to be able to do things lightly, but I can't. When I give myself to something, I do so completely. The Vortex absorbed all my energy.

That's easy to understand. It was your first experience on the Los Angeles stage.

"You know, my daughters - who were at home on holiday in December, while I was in the midst of rehearsals - were not very happy with me. They'd say to me, 'Oh, Mom, you're such a bore... You're always tired.' So, I took them to the premiere, and then they understood. As they hugged me very hard they said, 'Forgive us, we hadn't realised it was so hard on you. Come Easter we'll make you breakfast in bed every morning.' Well, they never did!"

So did the pressure of the play have any influence on your relationship?

"It would say very little about the great love we've shared if we had broken up only because of one job.

"Don't try to find explanations to things that are more emotional than cerebral. We were very happy. We had a marvellous present, but there was no future for us."

Why not? Nobody knows what's in store for the future.

"It took me a lifetime to gain my stability. I've managed to create a universe. I've created it for myself and my daughters. It's sometimes difficult for a man to understand that."

How do you feel now?

"When things happen, they happen. No need to keep harping on it. You've got to keep on going. At times I think the ones who suffered the most were the dogs!

"Emily, the little one, is mine, and Shiva, the big one, was Steve's. They made up a family and played together. One day Shiva disappeared from Emily's life and for weeks the poor little thing followed me around the house with a sad look on her face as if saying, 'I don't know what happened but... It wasn't my fault!'"

Has the break-up changed you in any way?

"After this experience I've decided to be very cautious. The girls are entering a period in their lives in which we all have to be very careful. Adolescence is a very difficult phase, and I don't want anything to harm them. They loved Steve, and were with him for four years, and I think they've come to understand what happened between us. But I don't want something like this to happen to them again.

"I've learned that never again is a man going to take the most important part of my life. After a relationship as intense as the one I've had, I'm not going to dash directly for another man, bring him home and tell my daughters: 'I'd like you to meet your new uncle Charlie.' Definitely not."

You always speak of your daughters as central to your life.

"My commitment to my children is very serious. I'm their mother, naturally, but as they grow older, I feel they're growing even closer to me, almost as if they were some dear friends with whom I can talk about anything. That's why I miss them so much when they're not around.

"They're my priority. I structure my life in such a way so as to be free for them. It's that simple, although it's not always that easy."

I don't see how you manage, because you never stop working and yet, curiously, you're not appearing in the supposed last episode of Dynasty.

"Don't ask me why. I don't know. Perhaps it's because Joan Collins didn't want the competition. Ha!"

"I've just finished some documentaries about royal families in which I'm the presenter, and it's almost certain that I'm going to take up an offer to interview famous Europeans. It'll be fascinating to be able to tell their lives on television."

So, now you're going to see what it feels like to be the one interviewing. Do you have any other projects aside from acting?

"I might commercialise my own line of make-up. I've gotten to an age in which acting alone isn't enough for me. It's as if I were a tree that only had one branch. I want to have more branches."