‘It’s a Living’ Alum Ann Jillian Recalls Leaving Hollywood for Motherhood

Eighties sex symbol Ann Jillian turned her back on Hollywood to focus on being a mom — and she’s never regretted it!

“I gave birth to my one and only son when I was 42 and I took that seriously,” Ann, 76, who landed on Hollywood’s A-list playing a sultry waitress on the sitcom It’s a Living, told Fox News Digital.

And while she admires women who can balance motherhood and fame, “I recognize that I cannot. Something is going to suffer,” she adds.

Ann got her start as a child actress, playing Little Bo Peep in 1961’s Babes in Toyland.

The next year, she starred in 1962’s Gypsy as Baby June alongside Natalie Wood and Rosalind Russell.

She was a regular on the ’60s sitcom Hazel then toured in musical comedies before appearing with Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller in the original company of Sugar Babies on Broadway.

Her career exploded in the ’80s with It’s a Living and at 35, she made headlines when she went public with her breast cancer diagnosis.

Her battle with the disease was told in the 1988 made-for-TV movie The Ann Jillian Story, with Ann earning a Golden Globe for playing herself.

But after her son, Andrew, with hubby Andy Murcia was born in 1992, Ann decided to switch gears.

“I thought, ‘I don’t want to be a thousand miles away if he gets a boo-boo. I don’t want to be a thousand miles away when he wants to talk about something just terrible that happened at school or just wonderful that happened at school,’ ” she told the outlet.

“I don’t want to be in front of a camera somewhere when it’s time for him to have his first communion.

“So, basically, I hung up my dancing shoes and said, ‘Nope, nope, this is the most important role I have to play right now and that’s being a mom.’

“I’m sure I made mistakes along the way, but I learned an awful lot too and I had the privilege of raising a young man who is now an international tax attorney. And I wouldn’t trade that for the world.”