Lord Of The Rings star Orlando Bloom is fast becoming one of Hollywood's hottest properties. But before he is a movie star, Orlando is a family man, and his adoring mum has been talking about her pride in her son's success.

"I think he is a bit of a phenomenon," says Sonia Copeland Bloom at the family home in Kent. "There is something very special about him and he's almost oblivious to it."

As a youngster, Orlando thought the renowned civil rights campaigner Harry Bloom was his father, but when he turned 12 his mum revealed her boyfriend Colin Stone was, in fact, his biological parent. Sonia stresses that the revelations didn't damage her beloved son, however.

"Orlando has a very happy background. It is something he has grown up with. Orlando is not sad. It was marvellous when he learned that Colin was his father. He was brought up surrounded by a loving family."

The hunky actor has also faced the challenge of being dyslexic, but his mum says he has more than overcome it. "He reads scripts all the time," said Sonia. "It hardly affects him now – Orlando got eight O-levels and three A-levels. He is a wonderful sculptor – very artistic and very bright."

Orlando, meanwhile, says he is grateful to have so much support from his loved ones. "I'm a hero to her but what is really important to me is my family and my friends and the people who are closest to me," he says. "I try to maintain some sort of sense of reality through work, friends and my family."