January Jones has said she probably would have been a lesbian if she'd lived in the Sixties, because she couldn't have coped with the female oppression of the era.

The 35-year-old actress plays Sixties housewife Betty Draper in hit TV show Mad Men, but insists she wouldn't have wanted to live in that time.

January told the Evening Standard: "I wouldn't cope very well. I'm a very independent person, and I would have to work - I would have to be some sort of Peggy-type character [secretary-turned-businesswoman Peggy Olson]. And I wouldn't be satisfied with being bossed around by a bunch of men. I'd probably have to be a lesbian."

The X-Men star confessed she doesn't like Betty, but she can't help being protective of the character she has played for the last six years.

She said: "I don't think Betty is a villain. I don't know that she has a black heart. I disagree with her, a lot. I don't know if I necessarily like her, and I don't know if I would be her friend, but I defend her, fiercely."

January insisted being a working single mother to 18-month-old son Xander Dane had not been difficult as she was able to bring him on to the Mad Men set with her. But she confessed she felt less glamorous now she is a mother.

She said: "There is less glamour in my life now. Now I am a mother, I get more excited about splendid T-shirts that are super-soft and cosy than an amazing pair of heels. That's a little sad, but your priorities change."