Eric Roberts' squirrel sanctuary is his ultimate escape

Speaking on the misSPELLING podcast, Eric said: "My pleasure is coming home. That' s my vacation. That's where all the animals greet me, and the wife is here ... We have lots of land. It's heaven."

In their over 30 years of marriage, Eric and his wife Eliza have created a family with a diverse cast of furry friends.

He said: "We have everything you can think of. We have horses. We have cats. We have dogs. We have a squirrel sanctuary. We have a raccoon family who we've taken care of for many generations. We have a koi pond with all kinds of fancy koi fish - one great big guy is white with a red nose who we named Rudolph."

But Eric's favourite area is the squirrel sanctuary, a project that began by chance almost two decades ago, though he admitted it can "freak people out" as the creatures are so tame.

He said: "The cool story is the squirrel sanctuary. About 18 years ago we found hurt squirrel in the yard, and we take it to wherever you take it. They fix it and they called us and said 'can we bring it back?', and we say 'sure'. They come back and they say 'Oh, you have all these trees. Can we bring all the hurt squirrels, and they'll get well here?' We said 'sure'.

"300 squirrels later, we have a squirrel sanctuary. And the city gives us 100 pounds of walnuts every month to feed the squirrels.

"They're all hand tamed. They freak people out because they walk towards you with their hands out to eat and everybody gets freaked out. But it's just heaven here. That's what I do when I'm off."

Eric - who has actress daughter Emma Roberts with former partner Kelly Cunningham - credited their shared love for animals as a cornerstone of his relationship with Eliza.

He said: "We're both animal people and we got together. We're animal people and we became a farm."