Hilarie Burton has grown "warmer [and] more aggressive" as she's got older

She told E! News: "Obviously communication is a very big deal and also anticipating that your partner is going to go through phases and changes.

"We both have gone through different professional phases where maybe we're super ambitious in one phase of our life, and then we're nesting in another phase of our life. And we try to work in tandem so that we're each compensating for each other.

"I'm certainly not the same person I was at 26. Now I'm like a warmer, more aggressive version and he seems to like that."

The couple are parents to son Augustus, 14, and six-year-old daughter George and while Hilarie has been watching 90s teen movies with her eldest to educate him on "how to throw a party", she admitted he's reluctant to watch her classic TV show 'One Tree Hill'.

She said: "He saw one episode, and it's weird for him to see me kiss people. He doesn't love that.

"But he does student council, and so we spent the entire summer watching teen movies from the '90s because kids now are just on phones and they don't know how to throw a party, they don't know how to make plans.

"And so, he wanted before he went into high school to learn what it's supposed to look like. And so I showed him all of these movies and the next step is 'One Tree Hill'. Just what show can we show you that isn't mine? I'll make him watch 'Dawson's [Creek]'."

The 'A Christmas Wish' star's two children are very different from one another.

She explained: "So my son is little me. He has gotten involved with everything in our community. He's doing a homecoming dance and he's in the school play and he is rowing crew. This child is busy.

"My daughter is the animal person at the farm. So I have my town kid and my country kid, and they balance each other really, really nicely.

"My son's taken to riding dirt bikes around the property with my husband, that's cool, and my daughter just wants to get outside and wrestle dogs."