New relationships come with a lot of potential deal-breakers. A few weeks in, you might discover that your ‘significant other’ is pro-Brexit,

that they leave the toilet seat up, that their mum still does their washing or that they only listen to techno music.

For those living with mental health disorders, however, the idea that this huge part of who you are could be a sticking point for someone deciding whether they want to continue romancing you, can be daunting.

Allowing yourself to show your vulnerable side is hard at the best of times, let alone knowing that doing so might signal the end of a blossoming love affair.

‘We all know someone, or we are someone, that deals with some version of this,’ Anne Hathaway tells ELLE UK. ‘So, what exactly do we have to be ashamed about?

Certainly not life, not living, certainly not the particulars of it.’

Shame is society’s fault

This month, Hathaway stars in Modern Love – a new eight-part Amazon Prime series (out 18th October) directed by John Carney (Sing Street) and based on real life stories from the New York Times’ cult Modern Love column. In the drama, the actress plays Lexi, a woman navigating the dating world and her bi-polar disorder.

Speaking of the prejudice that continues to surround mental health, Hathaway adds: ‘Shame is not the responsibility of somebody who has a mental disorder – it’s the rest of us.

‘I love people who you would classify as having disorders and they don’t see themselves represented in stories,’ she continues. ‘I was truly happy to put this story out there.’

The 36-year-old has been vocal about her own experiences with anxiety in the past and says that working on Modern Love has cemented her belief that expressing your emotions is vital to one’s wellbeing.

What exactly do we have to be ashamed about? Certainly not life

‘I think that because my job deals with emotions, I think about them a lot, talk about them a lot; it’s a part of my life,’ Hathaway notes. ‘It’s been a learning curve for me to realise this is not the case for everybody.

The actress, who is currently pregnant with her second child with husband Adam Shulman, reveals that seeing the ‘positive effect’ that Modern Love has had so far has inspired her to continue being honest with how she feels.

‘To make people who have felt overlooked, now feel included is something everybody with a heart wants,’ she says of her priorities.

Understanding bipolar disorder

For Hathaway, preparing for her character meant getting to know Terri Cheney, the writer behind the original Modern Love short story and author of Manic – a memoir regaling her debilitating bipolar disorder.

‘Terri really led me to the physicality of the character,’ the star explains. ‘She described how heavy her body gets during a manic episode, how heavy even a spoon is, which is not something I would have known about, except for through her.’

In a recent article on Psychology Today, Cheney wrote of working with Hathaway: ‘I’ve never yet been able to observe the depiction of bipolar disorder in movies or on TV without wanting to get up and yell at the screen to, ‘Get it right!’ But this episode felt very real to me.

‘The mania is treated like a mini-musical: Anne Hathaway sings and dances her way through it, which is so appropriate because mania is indeed like an exuberant Broadway production, all glitz and sparkle and spotlights.’

Learning in love

In Hathaway’s Modern Love episode (each one is based around a different couple), her character’s ‘meet cute’ takes place in the fruit aisle of a supermarket while she’s in the throes of a bipolar high.

Because my job deals with emotions, I think about them a lot

In a dream-like haze, there are dancers grand jeté-ing and a brief musical number starts in the supermarket’s car park. But what has been the most interesting thing that’s happened to Hathaway during a weekly shop?

‘A sale on the organic stuff?’ she jokes. ‘Nothing as fun as this, but my husband and I are always being playful in supermarket aisles.’ While the pair might not have enjoyed their very own ‘meet cute’ in such an everyday setting (they first set eyes on each other at the Palm Springs Film Festival in 2008), the actress says: ‘We met, and we are cute.’

According to the New Yorker, actor Michael Cane once told her that the key to a successful marriage was getting separate bathrooms. But the best relationship advice she’s received has come from her very own husband.

My husband and I are always being playful in supermarket aisles

Recalling the biggest lesson she learnt from Shulman, Hathaway says: ‘We were in the middle of a fight, and I really deeply wanted to be right about something and he said that he was absolutely fine with me being “right”, because he was the one saying the truth.

‘I realised this was one of those moments where I was going to have to grow up, because I was handed this wisdom from the person I was mad at, which is really awful. The purpose of the fight should be what serves the relationship and not what satisfies my righteousness. I’m still petty as hell, but I do try my best to live up to that.’

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Source: USA Today