Caterina Murino is pregnant.

The 47-year-old actress - who is best known for her role as Solange in Casino Royale opposite Daniel Craig - is expecting her first child with Edouard Rugaud, her partner of eight years, following an "excruciating" journey with IVF treatment, during which she suffered two miscarriages.

Caterina, who will give birth to a baby boy at the end of summer, shortly before turning 48, told France's Gala magazine: "At my age, I had to ask medicine to help nature.

"You don't always decide when the right time to become a mother comes."

Despite her fertility struggles, Caterina has enjoyed a smooth and healthy pregnancy.

She said: "I haven't had any discomfort, no diabetes, no insomnia."

And while she is feeling anxious about her delivery, the Italian star feels confident in "the fantastic work" of her midwife team.

Caterina has hailed her pregnancy a "magical moment".

She told Italy's Costa Smeralda: "I feel I am living a magical moment. Soon I will become a mother, and I believe we all have a huge responsibility today: raise conscious human beings."

The Garden of Eden actress has admitted she only understood the "significance" of her breakout role in 2006's Casino Royale much later.

She told Costa Smeralda: "It was a tremendous opportunity, but perhaps I only understood its significance later.

"I was the first Bond girl in the Daniel Craig era, in a film which marked a change of mood in the saga. Today, I look back at it with gratitude and realisation: not so much for the glamour surrounding it, but for the chance it gave me to build an international career."

Caterina received death threats in response to her saucy scene with Daniel in the movie.

She said: "When he kissed me in the film… it was so sexy, so real. It must have looked very real, because among the many fan letters I got was a death threat from someone who was jealous."