Sam's Mr Romantic, says Kate

The 28-year-old actress said film director Sam Mendes swept her off her feet by taking her to Venice for her birthday two years ago.

'It was the most romantic thing that's ever happened to me,' she told Esquire. 'I'm completely slushy about the whole love thing.'

The mother-oftwo, who has just finished filming Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, said it still amazed her she fell in love with Mendes so soon after her divorce to Jim Threapleton.

'I was looking to raise a child all on my own. No one was more surprised than me.'

She said the divorce was a 'horrible, horrible time', adding: 'It was worse because I was being painted as some devil-mother who didn't care about her child.'