Jason Statham taught Rosie Huntington-Whiteley to take control of her career

Jason Statham taught Rosie Huntington-Whiteley to take control of her career.

The 37-year-old model-and-actress has been in a relationship with the 57-year-old action star — with whom she has seven-year-old son Jack and a two-year-old daughter — since 2016 and she learned a lot from seeing him advocate for himself and manifest his dreams.

Speaking on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, she said: “When I started, you kind of join an agency and they take control of your kind of diary and your schedule and you’re sort of told what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it. That worked for a period and in a way it kind of works when you’re really young because you’re still sort of leaving the nest of mum and dad where you kind of have been told what to do.

“But I think around my sort of early mid-20s, there was definitely a point, and I remember it was actually Jason, who is a great advocate for himself, but also really been such a backbone of strength and support for me as well, because he’s taught me so much.

“It was a reminder for me of, ‘No, no, no, I’m in control and I’m in control of some of this.’…

“I also live with someone [Jason] who uses manifestation and self belief as a real tool and I know it’s really infectious.”

The Mad Max: Fury Road actress admitted finding balance between work and home can be difficult, but she has now set rules that mean she doesn’t take on jobs during the school holidays, and she tries to be around for as many of the “small things” in her children’s lives as possible.

She said: “I think creating boundaries is, as a mum, a real struggle… For me when I’m with my children I try to be really present. When I go to work, I try to be really present, but there’s not a fine balance.

“There are periods where I’m really wanting to work more or, you know, I’m away and I’ve really missed the children. And then I’ll know I come back and I clear time.

“So what’s great is Jack is in school now, I make sure I take off all of the holidays, which is actually an enormous amount of time but that’s great because it allows me to really have these periods of time where I can very much focus.

“And it’s the small things as well, like day to day, like making breakfast together, the school run, school pickup, bedtime, bath time, story time, those moments, sitting down, eating together, going to the park and just making sure I’ve got those moments in there.

“As Jack’s getting older, my daughter is two, but as he’s getting older… it’s finding those little things where you build that connection with them every day.”