Actor Richard E. Grant says he felt overwhelmed when his daughter was born.

In a joint interview with his daughter Olivia to The Sunday Times magazine, the actor has said her birth felt like a miracle after the couple were "told not to try" to have children following a series of miscarriages, reports femalefirst co.uk.

The 63-year-old actor and his wife, dialect and voice coach Joan Washington, welcomed their daughter Olivia in 1989. Richard is also stepfather to Joan's son Tom.

"Before we had Olivia, Joan and I had had another baby girl who was born at 27 weeks and only lived for half an hour because her lungs were underdeveloped. Joan also had multiple miscarriages and we were told not to try again. But she was very determined and said: 'I've seen how you are with Tom, I think fatherhood suits you'," he recalled.

"Olivia was born in 1989, by caesarean section. I remember a nurse bringing her to the door and it's the first and only time I've experienced projectile water shooting out of my eyes. I felt overwhelmed, and that feeling has remained. She was born six weeks premature, weighed four pounds (about 1.8 kilos) and had jaundice, so she had to go into an incubator. She looked like a little bird. When I finally got to pick her up, it felt like I could hold her in the palm of my hand," Grant said.

Olivia believes her parents' previous experience with loss made them "very present" for her upbringing.

She said: "Both of my parents are very present. Because of everything that happened with the baby they lost, they wanted to be there as much as they could. Dad would go away for two months at a time, but then be home for four months."