Actress Ellen Barkin waxes lyrical in a New York Times interview about her ex-husband Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, while slamming her other ex - billionaire Ron Perelman.

She reveals that her and Byrne's son Jack, 21, is a blues guitarist whose band toured with Bob Dylan last summer and her daughter Romy is ready to go to college in the fall.

Speaking of her kids and ex-husband she says “They’re great, they’re extraordinary and Gabriel and I really did it together,” she said. (Byrne never remarried.) “We have every kid’s birthday together and both of our birthdays with the kids,” she went on.

“Any time I cook a holiday meal, Gabriel comes here, and Christmas is usually his holiday, so then I go there. I know I’ve said this before, but I don’t think a marriage has to last forever to be successful, and I think we had a good marriage and we managed to keep what was good about it alive for 25 years.

I have enormous respect for him, and I would say it’s reciprocated. He was extremely supportive of me during some very difficult times. And he’s a great father to our kids.”. “I kept every piece of jewelry he ever gave me.”

In contrast she refuses to discuss her ex Ron Perleman only to confirm a story that she threw a glass of water at him in a Manhattan restaurant after their stormy divorce .

Asked what kept her awake at 3 a.m worrying she said;

“More like 6 in the morning,” she said. “I don’t worry about my children, which is a good thing. I guess I worry about weird existential things, like how do we spend our final act.” “I think, You’re 56 years old, what did you do?” she continued. “You raised two good kids. What am I going to do now that is as meaningful as that? I don’t know the answer yet. I guess I’m up thinking, Am I too old to start to absorb new things?”