{"id":237010,"date":"2023-09-26T22:03:19","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T22:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=237010"},"modified":"2023-09-26T22:03:19","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T22:03:19","slug":"theres-far-too-much-fuss-about-ageing-says-joan-collins-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/lifestyle\/theres-far-too-much-fuss-about-ageing-says-joan-collins-90\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s far too much fuss about ageing says Joan Collins, 90"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Age is a dirty word in the Collins household. Not because Dame Joan\u2019s scared of her 90 years. Or because her beloved fifth husband is a few decades her junior. But because she\u2019s always believed the secret to ageing well is to…well, ignore it as well as you can.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh! We don\u2019t mention that,\u201d she laughs when asked about The Birthday. \u201cI\u2019m 60\u2026 plus however many years!\u201d<\/p>\n

It might explain why, having reached that birthday milestone in May, Dame Joan still has a work and social diary to rival Alexis Colby in her prime.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the new book \u2013 her 19th \u2013 Behind The Shoulder Pads<\/em>, an upcoming tour of her new one-woman show of the same name, a new partnership with Marks & Spencer food, a passion project about Wallis Simpson (which may or may not go down well with her Royal friends), and, more imminently, a host of shopping to do before guests arrive for her regular poker game.<\/p>\n

Don’t miss… <\/strong> Joan Collins speaks out as her first boyfriend and co-star David McCallum dies[LATEST] <\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s quite the full dance card for a screen icon who could once count James Dean, Gene Kelly and Marlon Brando as pals, and who has known Liza Minnelli since she was a babe in Judy Garland\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s far too much fuss about ageing,\u201d explains Dame Joan. \u201cYou see people in their 90s and 100s doing amazing things \u2013 running and jumping on Instagram \u2013 there\u2019s no reason to fall apart. I do my stretching exercises each morning and I have a trainer on Zoom three times a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her routine, she adds, includes \u201cstanding on one leg\u201d for \u201calmost a minute\u201d \u2013 an activity that would defeat many half her age. However, one might suggest the real reason for Dame Joan\u2019s youthful joie de vivre has less to do with her balancing skills and more to do with the stability and happiness she\u2019s been enjoying since meeting and marrying her \u201cbest friend\u201d \u2013 hubby number five Percy Gibson, 58.<\/p>\n

The pair celebrated their 20th-anniversary last year \u2013 a bona fide slap in the face to the one-time critics of their 32-year age gap, and perhaps the reason Dame Joan is suddenly ready to open up about their relationship in a way she never has before.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is fifth time lucky,\u201d says Dame Joan, over Zoom, from their grand central London flat. \u201cI\u2019ve been feeling that for years. He\u2019s a wonderful, kind, truly good man. He\u2019s my \u2013 what\u2019s the thing he always says? \u2013 my accomplice, yes, and my best friend. Plus he\u2019s extremely handsome and he just gets better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re audio-only \u2013 Dame Joan has just got out of her mid-morning bath \u2013 but you can tell she\u2019s wearing that famous coy smile of hers. \u201cEveryone says how lucky I am,\u201d she adds. \u201cAnd how good he\u2019s looking right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair first met in 2000 when Dame Joan was 67 and touring the US in the play Love Letters<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Percy \u2013 whose father was Peruvian and mother Scottish \u2013 was her 36-year-old divorced producer. They bonded over otherwise lonely dinners on the road and soon, for one of the first times in her life, Dame Joan fell for the nice guy.<\/p>\n

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When a last-minute change of plans saved Percy from being near the World Trade Center on 9\/11, the lovebirds decided life was too short not to marry \u2013 and wed at Claridge\u2019s hotel in Mayfair, central London in 2002, and recreated the day for their anniversary last year. So, has Dame Joan finally found a man to treat her like the queen she is?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, not at all. It can\u2019t work like that,\u201d she tells me. \u201cA relationship is about two people both being there to help and support each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not what I was expecting. Although\u2026\u201cEvery morning before he goes for a run he brings me a coffee in bed while I read all the papers,\u201d she adds. \u201cAnd he leaves me little notes under the kettle.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what is the secret to this marriage? (Dame Joan once refused to be Liza Minnelli\u2019s maid of honour, saying: \u201cI\u2019m always the bride, never the bridesmaid”, below.)<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think the difference was, Percy and I became really good friends first,\u201d she says. \u201cSo we had this connection. We really knew each other. And separate bathrooms is key! Although we are very lucky. I know that\u2019s not something everyone can have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her point is, that they give each other space.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has his office area and I have mine. I\u2019ll spend time in mine writing or phoning my friends. And he\u2019ll be working, looking after our three properties,\u201d she explains \u2013 they have homes in London, St Tropez and LA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we\u2019ll do something together. Like any couple, we have our ups and downs. And we do occasionally argue \u2013 it\u2019s normally when we\u2019re working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

That bodes well for the next few months: he\u2019s directing her forthcoming UK tour.<\/p>\n

Yet you only have to read her new memoir to realise their disagreements are few and fleeting. The pair give \u201chis and her\u201d versions of how they met and their wedding day, and while \u201csome recollections may vary\u201d \u2013 as Dame Joan\u2019s idol, the late Queen, would say \u2013 they\u2019re clearly besotted with each other. Take this snippet from Percy\u2019s wedding speech: \u201cJoan is my accomplice, my comrade, my confessor, my confidante. My fearless leader and my most loyal supporter, my very best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Percy\u2019s Peruvian heritage also gives him a refreshing attitude to the age gap. \u201cThe age difference didn\u2019t matter to him,\u201d Dame Joan explains. \u201cIn Peru, if a woman is attractive, she\u2019s attractive. They don\u2019t think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having endured years of ribbing about her \u201ctoyboy\u201d, Dame Joan seems pleased attitudes are changing. Even if it\u2019s just that older men are also getting \u201cmore of a hard time\u201d lately. We\u2019re discussing her peers Robert De Niro, 80 (whose girlfriend is 45) and Al Pacino, 83 (whose on\/off girlfriend is 29).<\/p>\n

Both actors have something extra on their plate that Dame Joan does not \u2013 a newborn. The thought of having to deal with late-night feeds and nappies again causes much mirth to the mum-of-three and four-time grandma.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong. I adore my baby granddaughter,\u201d she says, of her son\u2019s daughter, 18-month-old Deia. \u201cBut a couple of hours with her and that\u2019s enough for me. Not that the men do much of the work, mind you! They do the cooing and that\u2019s it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Percy, Dame Joan\u2019s love life had been complicated. She was just 19 when she married her one-time heartthrob, Irish actor Maxwell Reed, after he date-raped her on their first night together.<\/p>\n

They split after three years and she got engaged to Warren Beatty, only to have to have a then-illegal abortion \u2013 she is appalled many states are making them illegal again.<\/p>\n

That relationship ended because of Beatty\u2019s infidelity, as did her following eight-year marriage to the late actor-singer-songwriter Anthony Newley \u2013 the father of her daughter Tara Newley (59, and a writer and producer) and son Sacha (58 and an artist).<\/p>\n

Then in 1972 she married film producer Ron Kass, with whom she had Katy, now 51. By 1983 he had left her broke and was using drugs \u2013 something she blames on his cocaine-snorting film protege, and their one-time lodger, Dodi Fayed.<\/p>\n

Next came Swedish musician Pete Holm. They split after two years in 1987 and she has no idea, and even less wish to know, what happened to him.<\/p>\n

Dame Joan was with The Grand Budapest Hotel actor Robin Hurlstone \u2013 who actively hated her family, including best-selling author sister Jackie \u2013 when the actress began an affair with Percy. It led to a very messy break-up but one that was worth it. \u201c[Percy] was the best lover I\u2019d ever had,\u201d she raves in her book.<\/p>\n

Since then she and Percy have had a few dramas \u2013 a fire and a water leak in their London flat, escaping wildfires in the south of France, Dame Joan collapsing in LA (her corset was too tight and her meals too light, doctors said), and three bouts of Covid.<\/p>\n

But, for the most part, the only tumultuous love lives that now keep them up at night are the ones they\u2019re binge-watching on TV. So what are they hooked on?<\/p>\n

Well, what else… \u201cA lot of TV is so boring nowadays,\u201d says Dame Joan. \u201cNothing really rocks my boat. So Percy found a box set of Dynasty.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then, we didn\u2019t have videos, so I haven\u2019t seen about three-quarters of them. Percy will be asking what happens next with Blake and Alexis \u2013 and I have no idea! I can certainly see why it was as popular as it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watching her as the formidable Alexis, Percy must also be pinching himself about how lucky he is. No matter how many candles are on her birthday cake.<\/p>\n