Dame Joan Collins may be well into her ninth decade but she says she’s relieved she married a much younger man admitting a partner her own age would be a disaster for her.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the star of stage and screen said age gaps in marriages – there are 32 years between herself and husband Percy Gibson – should be celebrated.
She told the newspaper: ‘Thank God I married somebody 30 years younger than me. I couldn’t bear to be married to someone my own age.’
The former Dynasty star also said she finds it irksome when people ask her when she’s going to retire, calling the question ‘f***ing rude’.
Joan, 88, told The Sunday Times marriage to a man who matched her in years would be a nightmare. Her husband Percy Gibson, 56, is 32 years her junior. Pictured: The couple at The Michael Josephson MBE Charity Ball this weekend
Calling Percy, a Hollywood producer, ‘the rock that holds our family together’, she gushed: ‘He’s the best, I can’t imagine life without him.’
The couple will celebrate their 20-year anniversary next February, and the glamorous star says she’s already thinking of gifts to commemorate the occasion, and may buy her husband a platinum cigarette case.
Revealing how ‘retire’ is a dirty word to her, the star said ‘There’s a perception about getting old that’s outdated. People are living longer and living healthier.’
Though Joan is now happily married, it hasn’t always been the case yet no one could say it wasn’t for her lack of trying. Her first husband, Maxwell Reed had been a union that came about simply to protect their honour after losing their virginity.
When that marriage came to an end, actor Anthony Newley came into the picture and together they shared two children, Tara and Sacha. Her third child, Katy, was born with her next husband, Ron Kass.
Her fourth husband, Peter Holm, known unaffectionately to Joan as ‘The Swede’ was the worst of all according to the actress who described him as a bully. Luckily, she saved the best until last and found true joy when she met Percy.
The glamorous octogenarian says she has no plans to retire despite being in her ninth decade
Joan, despite living in wedded bliss, says she was not spared from the challenges of lockdown boredom.
Amid her own fears of contracting the virus, she spent her days sorting out the builders working on her house, gently exercising indoors and consuming as many box sets as she could, namely Good Girls, The Queen’s Gambit and Ray Donovan.
‘I was fearful,’ she said of her time in lockdown. ‘We were sanitising our newspapers, I would not go to the supermarket. Percy would go and then we’d sanitise everything.’
Since vaccination, life has been freer. She’s attended the theatre, flown abroad, and is looking forward to the future, but worldwide doom and gloom has taken its toll on the actress.
After being cautious during lockdown, the star has started travelling again, including a recent trip to Mallorca
There’s fury that her morning routine, watching Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain came to an end when the presenter was sacked last year.
‘He’s more interesting than any of them,’ she says, alluding to his like for not worrying about the reactions his words cause.
‘People can’t say what they think, because they’ll get cancelled. Dredging up tweets from 15 years ago, about what somebody might have said when they were 14, I think that’s sick.’