Helena Bonham Carter is expecting her second child with film director Tim Burton, at the age of 41.

The pair met when the US filmmaker was directing Bonham Carter in Planet of the Apes and already have a three-year-old son, Billy.

Today her spokeswoman said: "Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton are very happy to be expecting their second child later this year."

Bonham Carter, the great granddaughter of former Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, had her first leading role at the age of 17 and shot to fame as a classic English rose in films like Howard's End and A Room With a View.

She went on to reinvent her image by playing a punk with steamy loves scenes with Brad Pitt in Fight Club and an ape in Planet of the Apes in 2001.

US filmmaker Burton, 48, the director of movies like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow, was with his fiancee, actress Lisa Marie, for ten years before he became involved with the English star.

Bonham Carter has always insisted that they began their affair after he broke up with his fiancee and that they were never romantically involved during the shooting of Planet of the Apes, in which Marie also starred.

Burton moved to the UK to be with his girlfriend but the couple have unusual living arrangements, sharing two houses with an adjoining corridor.

After having her first baby, the London-born actress said: "It's like an explosion of heart, love, everything - and it's extraordinary.

"It's changed everything. Everybody told me it would, and, of course, I didn't really listen, and there's no real way of describing it."

Burton, who was in the delivery room, recalled: "It was like my own private Alien movie. I'll tell you, it was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. It was amazing."

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