Elizabeth Hurley has admitted she felt ashamed when her 12-year-old son saw the script for her new show The Royals.

The TV series, which stars Elizabeth as the cut-throat Queen Helena, has been full of sex, drugs and bad language in its first few episodes on US channel E!.

So when the actress asked young son Damian to run through her lines with her for filming, she quickly realised it wasn’t suitable reading material for a child.

Elizabeth Hurley and son Damian
Elizabeth Hurley and son Damian at The Royals premiere party in London (Anthony Devlin/PA)

According to the Daily Mail, she told New! magazine: “I was ashamed when my 12-year-old son read it. I kept saying, ‘Don’t read that! But test me on my lines’.”

However, Elizabeth still brought Damian along as her date to the London premiere party of the US series last week, where she was also joined by her on-screen children William Moseley and Alexandra Park.