I've lived 1,100 miles apart from hubby for 10 years

SITTING in a buzzing restaurant in Mexico City at the end of a month-long holiday, Wanja Mary Sellers prepares to say goodbye to her husband of nearly 40 years.

- KATE GRAHAM

The actress is happily married to the love of her life, film director Fabrizio Laurenti, and they have three kids.

Yet in less than 24 hours they will go their separate ways - Fabrizio, 68, to his home in Rome and Wanja, 63, to her flat in London - without knowing when they will see each other again.

But Wanja believes they have the perfect arrangement.

She says: "Living 1,100 miles apart for the last decade is the secret to our incredible marriage."

EXCITEMENT

Wanja has always been independent and up for adventure. In 1980s New York she was a 20-something aspiring actress, waitressing while looking for parts, when she auditioned for the lead role in a movie called The Immigrant.

She got the job - and clicked with the cool Italian director. She says: "Shooting was such fun.

Fabrizio and I began dating and fell in love. When he needed to go back to Rome for work and asked me to come, I instantly agreed. I was young, in love and wasn't going to turn down an Italian adventure."

Busy careers meant spending weeks or even months apart - but their love thrived nonetheless. "We were doing things our own way," Wanja says. "That meant respecting each other's passions and independence." They wed in March 1985. "One quick trip to the town hall and, at 23,

I was a wife," Wanja says. "For two years we were in the opposite of a newlywed bubble, dashing off to exciting projects and being apart as much as we were together. It was never a hardship." Their son was born in 1991 and two daughters in 1996 and 2002 - and even then Wanja kept her independence.