Amanda Holden has revealed the saucy secret behind her steamy love life — and there’s even a secret code word involved. The 53-year-old is about to make her Netflix debut in Cheat: Unfinished Business, a steamy reality show that sees former couples reunited at a luxury retreat to confront past betrayals. And the star admits the experience has had a surprising knock-on effect on her marriage to music producer Chris Hughes as she made a series of intimate sex confessions.

Speaking about her initimate chats with Married at First Sight dating guru Paul C Brunson, Amanda revealed to The Sun: “Yeah, I was getting tips from Paul (during filming)… and was really nice to Chris for the week he came out to visit on set because I’d learned so much. I’d made notes. Paul is brilliant. I’ll tell you what — and everyone who knows me knows this — I talk too much and I interrupt,” she said. The Britain's Got Talent star revealed her and her hubby are now swinging from the chandeliers more than ever. “Yes,” Amanda cackled. “I’m working on my communication. Chris is very happy that I’ve done this show and he and Paul love each other.”

Filmed in a tropical paradise, the Netflix series — which drops April 30 — has been described as Love Island meets BBC Two’s Couples Therapy. Producers even brought in a 24/7 welfare team, with Amanda and Paul calling the whole thing “intense”.

But once the therapy talk is done, there’s always time for a cheeky sex chat — and Amanda wasn’t shy when it came to the age-old question of how often couples should be getting busy. Speaking from Netflix HQ, Paul explained: “The average amount of time that couples are having sex in the West is different to the East — it’s about three to four times per month.

“However, the majority of it is low-quality sex. So the question really is, ‘Would you rather actually have great sex, the most phenomenal sex ever, once a year or p**s-poor, mediocre sex once a month?’”

“Oh, but once a year doesn’t feel like enough,” Amanda admitted.

Amanda, who shares daughters Lexi, 19, and Hollie, 13, with Chris, says their secret to keeping the spark alive is regular date nights — and the occasional cheeky takeaway.

“I think because Chris and I are busy, I look forward to seeing him, and I still get butterflies when I see him,” she said. “We do date nights once a week, and I look forward to it and I dress up. This happened on a couple of days when it was really rainy back in the winter — and we actually cancelled dinner and watched Netflix and ordered a takeaway. And I just went, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got no kids. It’s so nice to talk to you’. It was hot because it was just me and him.”

She added: “And that’s how we do it. That is the secret. We actually call these date nights something else, but I’ll tell you that off-camera.”

Amanda later declined to reveal the code word for their “sexy-time” nights in writing. “My date night for conjugal is something I can only tell you verbally without a tape recorder and without it being in black and white,” she teased. “But I’m perfectly happy for you to print what I’ve said above!”