Former child star Hayley Mills has revealed that she fought a secret battle with breast cancer.

The 65-year-old daughter of the late actor John Mills, said that she was diagnosed on her birthday in 2008.

The Wild At Heart actress told Good Housekeeping magazine that she wanted to open up about the experience, following her recovery.

The star, who launched her acting career at the age of 12 with the film Tiger Bay, winning a Bafta for the role, said: “It was my birthday when I received the news...

“I was sitting in the sun by the Hudson River following a routine mammogram when I got the call on my mobile.

“It was an enormous shock. Suddenly, I looked out at the world as if I’d never seen it before.

“Everything felt clearer and sharper. And when you hear that diagnosis, you realise, ‘Now I’m going to find out what I’m actually made of’.”

Ms Mills, who was propelled to world fame in the 1960s thanks to Disney films Pollyanna and The Parent Trap, had surgery “very quickly” after discovering she had cancer in both breasts.

She suggested that her sister Juliet, who is also an actress, could replace her in Wild At Heart.

“It worked really well, and at the end of the series I came out to do one day’s shooting. That gave me a real focus to get well,” Ms Mills said.

The actress said that she was totally knocked out by the chemotherapy and that she lost all her hair within two weeks of the first dose.

She said: “I got to a point when I thought, ‘to hell with this’, so my son Jason shaved my head!

“I had a marvellous wig, which helped, and at night I wore a pink woolly bobble hat because my head got cold.”

Ms Mills said that her partner, actor Firdous Bamji, would find her “wearing this child’s hat with knitted fairycakes hanging off the bottom of it...”

The Whistle Down The Wind actress said that she combined conventional and complementary medicine in her recovery.

She told the magazine: “I was first told two years ago that there was no sign of cancer any more, and I don’t think I can put into words how that news made me feel.

“Every year I have a full scan and check-up, and I truly believe it’s a combination of everything I did – surgery, chemo, alternative treatment – and the love of my family that helped.”