The actress, 41, said late Back to Black singer Winehouse was ‘unlike any other girls’ at the prestigious Sylvia Young theatre School – but revealed ‘not many’ of the other pupils took kindly to her.

And Piper says education ‘wasn’t the easiest ride’ for the ‘super clever’ and ‘super bright’ Winehouse.

The British star told Jessie and Lennie Ware’s Table Manners podcast she had moved to London at 12 years old to attend the  Marble Arch based school – just two years before signing her first record deal.

And when asked who her ‘peers’ at the school were, the actress said: ‘Amy Winehouse, she was always cheeky. She was always like that, you know, she would do abstract stuff and I really loved it.

Billie Piper has revealed her former classmate Amy Winehouse was bullied at school because she would often do ‘weird stuff’ and ‘liked to push buttons’

The actress said Winehouse was ‘unlike any other girls’ at the prestigious Sylvia Young theatre School – but revealed ‘not many’ of the other pupils took kindly to her

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‘She could do everything. She was super clever and super bright, unlike any other girls in that school.’

The actress continued: ‘She got bullied quite a lot in school because you know, she was doing her own thing and she liked to push buttons and do weird stuff.

‘I had a lot of space for that but not many of the girls did so it wasn’t the easiest ride.’

Piper and Winehouse, who died of alcohol poisoning in 2011 at the age of 27, both attended the independent performing arts school, which is named after its founder and principal, Sylvia Young OBE.

Pop star Dua Lipa and Hollywood actor Nicholas Hault are also among the famous alumni at the prestigious theatre school.

The East London establishment costs £15,000 per year for day pupils and £25,000-30,000 per year for boarding pupils.

Piper plays BBC producer Sam McAlister in forthcoming film Scoop, a biographical drama documenting Prince Andrew’s disastrous Newsnight interview with journalist Emily Maitlis.

The film arrives as the actress, a mother-of-three, admits she’s embarked on a fresh chapter in her life after ‘living it very hard in London’ – the city she still calls home.

The British star told Jessie and Lennie Ware’s Table Manners podcast she had moved to London at 12 years old to attend the Marble Arch based school

Piper has been in the showbiz industry since she was a child, getting her start as a singer and signing her first record deal at the age of 14 (pictured in 1998)

Winehouse aged 19 in 2003, after breaking into the music industry with debut album Frank

The actress has been busy promoting Scoop, which dramatises the interview between Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis, in which she plays BBC producer Sam McAlister (pictured in film)

Speaking to the latest issue of Grazia, Piper says she is ‘more honest’ about who she is, particularly within the context of a career that began when she was just 14-years old and under pressure to project a misleading media image.

‘So much of my childhood famous years and then into Doctor who was… be good, behave well, be a good role model, don’t say dark things, be sunny, don’t smoke, all that stuff,’ she recalled.

‘It didn’t align with where my thoughts were. My thoughts were way darker than that.’

The actress also admits to making important lifestyle changes after taking advantage of London’s raucous party scene throughout her career.

‘I’ve just lived it very hard in London,’ she explained. ‘I’ve really rinsed this town. The place will eat you if you don’t make a change at some point.

‘There’s always a fork in the road, at some point, with your life in London. And you have to make a choice with it.

‘Are you going to let the city take you down or are you going to get out? I’ve got the kids, so it feels like a very different place from what it was.’

Winehouse with dad Mitch outside her London home in 2008. The singer died of alcohol poisoning in 2011, aged just 27