Midsomer Murders' Fiona Dolman has split from husband is now pregnant with younger man's child

Dolman has revealed she has secretly split from her husband - and is now pregnant after a short-lived fling with a younger lover. (PA)

Midsomer Murders star Fiona Dolman has revealed she has secretly split from her husband - and is now pregnant after a short-lived fling with a younger lover.

The former Heartbeat star, 43, says she now plans to raise the baby alone and counts the pregnancy as a blessing she never thought she would have.

"It's obviously quite daunting to start this journey unplanned and on your own," she said in an interview with Hello! magazine.

Dolman - who plays Sarah Barnaby, wife of DCI John Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) in long-running series Midsomer Murders - tells the magazine she split up with assistant director Martin Curry in 2011 after 13 years of marriage.

She told only close family and friends about the separation.

"Separating from my husband, I felt the chance of being a mum had kind of gone. It's a terrible grief when you think that something that you so wanted to happen never will for you.

"Then this happens and, yes, it's not perfect, but you can't treat it as anything other than a gift. It feels like fate - I'm lucky, so, so lucky."

Dolman, who did not wish to name the father of her unborn baby, had already suffered several miscarriages.

"At 42 it was something I'd given up on, really - with our marriage ending I wouldn't have planned on having a child," she said.

"You do the calculations and think: 'Right, well, that's an avenue that's kind of closed for me and that's OK.

"Then life had a different plan."

Speaking about the end of her marriage, Dolman - who has recently seen in The Syndicate - said: "We'd known each other for 15 years and married for 13 of those.

"There was no nastiness, just the realisation that you want something to work but it just doesn't and it's run its course - and that's terribly sad."

:: The full interview is in the new edition of Hello! which is on sale now.

PA