I have very heavy red curtains in my bedroom. I had them in London; now they're in my house by the sea in Malibu. If I have a late night they're closed so the light doesn't get through. If not, they're open just a crack so the sun hits me at 7am. The first thing I do is take a jug of water to the geraniums on the balcony. Then I make sure the humming bird feeder is full of its nectar mix and I wait for them to whirr in like little fairies.

Still in my Laura Ashley nightie, I use the kitchen counter as a barre for some stretching exercises, a mixture of ballet and yoga - as a child, I was turned down by the Royal Ballet School because I didn't have the arches. By this time, Emily, my King Charles Cavalier spaniel, is crossing her legs so I put a cursory brush to the hair and the teeth, a splash of water on the face, pull on shorts and a shirt and wander down to the ocean, coffee in hand, to see if the dolphins are playing. I might bump into the neighbours - Me! Gibson and his six children, Goldie Hawn or Sylvester Stallone. The cast list is impressive on Broadbeach Road.

For breakfast, I liquidise orange juice with a banana (for the potassium), strawberries and raspberries. I keep my fridge empty - I have found it's the best way to keep slim. People come and stay with me to lose weight!

Janet, my assistant, arrives at 9am to start the business of the day, usually about my production company, Phoebe Chlo. It's named after my daughters, Phoebe, 17, and Chloe, 15, though the name is also a send-up of Colby Co, the company Joan [Collins] and I used to fight over in Dynasty. There are interviews to fix, letters to answer or charity work to organise. I was born with no hearing in my right ear and my left is only 80 per cent good, so I work for organisations for the hard of hearing.

Then I let Janet get on with her work while I go for a workout at the Malibu Gym. I break sweat but I'm not very serious, although I run on a machine for 20 minutes - I've got the lung capacity of a Callas. I am health-conscious - by Californian standards I'm lax, by English I'm fanatical - but the workout is really to justify lunch at the Café Malibu.

I always have a coffee, a mineral water (I don't drink alcohol) and a curly endive salad, which has papaya, chicken, grapes, pine nuts and radishes with a blue cheese and egg yolk dressing. This is not a slimming salad. On a perfect day I'd return in the evening for another. I am more faithful to my curly endive salad than I have been to any man! No, it's not true - but when they change the menu they are going to call it Stephanie's Endive Salad.

I'm usually very ill-dressed. You don't have to be chic - no Brownie points for being flash here. The pace is slow. I could never have stayed in Hollywood if I hadn't found Malibu.

In the afternoon I'll drive reluctantly into LA for meetings. You have to visit the factory - it supports looking at the dolphins. I get the hell back to Malibu as fast as I can. At sunset I return to the beach and chant my mantra. It's nothing heavy, but when the kids are here (three times a year), they think mother's having one of her funny turns. I went to a convent school and now, ethically at least, I'm a Buddhist. I believe in God and I believe in karma.

Before I go to bed I'll read or listen to music (opera is my favourite). My daughters [by her marriage to actor John McEnery] are at boarding school in England and I go to see them and my parents three times a year. The wonderful BBC World Service is my one great link with home: I've been in America for seven years. I hope I've kept my values - I've only gone overboard about a bit of salad.

Stephanie Beacham stars in the TV drama The Lilac Bus Monday ITV