I’ll go anywhere and am very adaptive, so long as I can take my cat. Kobi Cat is also very adaptive, even though she’s 17. So far she’s been to Liverpool, Chichester, London, Toronto, Vancouver and LA – she has her own passport and flies in the hold. I kind of have to take her, or she gives me a lot of shit.

There is still a stigma attached to people who don’t want to have kids. But listen: I don’t know a kid who thanks their parents for the nappies they changed. Although I always thought I would have a family, I’ve found other ways to channel a maternal instinct, and I think the young people I know relate to me because I’ve lived a different life from their parents.

I’m reconnecting with my roots in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve bought a place on Vancouver Island, right on the sea, and it’s magical – there are sea lions that go back and forth in front of the house all day long. When I first moved there I thought I’d have to go back to New York because of all the honking. Now the noise lulls me to sleep.

I didn’t really want to play Samantha in Sex and the City. I’d just turned 41 when they offered me the part and I thought: “Oh no, I can’t do the femme fatale thing any more.” Now I see 40 as very young. 50 is the new 40. It makes my 20s seem prehistoric.

The menopause was an awakening. People always talk of it as a sort of downturn for women, a negative thing, but I saw it as the start of new phase, a final chapter. It was: “What shall I do for the next 30 or 40 years, and with whom?”

Hollywood still doesn’t know how to deal with a lot of the issues that affect older women. I don’t really see myself in most of the film or television that’s been made – or even really in advertising. I still think most of the best roles are in the theatre.

Part of me will always think I’m British. I was born in Liverpool, although I moved to Vancouver when I was three months old. When I was 11, I came back to England for a year to live with my aunt. I didn’t want to leave. I remember thinking I had found people who were more like me.

The men I’ve been with have all been pleasant-enough looking. But for me, sex starts in the brain. What’s going on lower down doesn’t make me want to possess someone; it’s usually a little twinkle about them or a sense of humour.

My family were all very studious, whereas I was the kid who went to tap-dancing class and made up my own steps. I don’t think they were surprised when I said I wanted to act.

My job is probably the reason I’ve had three failed marriages. Although I loved those men very much, I don’t think I had taken into consideration the realities of my true love. Except for the first time: the first time I was just too young. And my boyfriend needed a green card.

Kim Cattrall stars in Sensitive Skin, a six-part series starting on Sky Arts on Wednesday 1 April at 10pm. Follow her on Twitter @kimcattrall