STILL A FORCE OF NATURE

Environmental activist Erin Brockovich reflects on raising resilient kids and seeing Julia Roberts play her on screen

- KATIE DALY

It isn’t every day that an unemployed single mother sees herself portrayed by Hollywood star Julia Roberts in an Oscar-winning film. But Erin Brockovich, who rose to fame after winning the biggest environmental lawsuit in American history, had a remarkable story to tell.

After exposing the fact that contaminated water was causing multiple illnesses in Hinkley, California, in 1993, she helped sue the utility firm responsible, the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, on behalf of the town. In 1996, the case was settled for $333m (around $666m, or £520m, today) – at the time, the largest sum ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in the US.

It's 25 years since Erin Brockovich, director Steven Soderbergh's film about her groundbreaking legal action, was released, but in this exclusive interview with HELLO!, Erin tells us that it feels like yesterday.