CELIA IMRIE
The truth behind my secret lovechild
AWARD-WINNING actress Celia Imrie has revealed she DID have a love affair with a Pride And Prejudice star who agreed to father her child.
She previously said she was purely friends with actor Benjamin Whitrow and added that they simply came to an “arrangement” about their baby.
Ms Imrie spoke of the details about what she agreed with Mr Whitrow, who died last year aged 80, in her memoirs.
But she has now opened up about romance and her feelings for the man she loved.
The 65-year-old Calendar Girls star said: “His death was very tough.
“I’d lost a very darling friend and, childishly, I found it terribly difficult to accept someone you’d loved was not in the world any more. I still feel like that.”
She added: “Angus [Imrie’s son] was devoted to his father and, though I’ve never really said it properly, Ben and I did have a romance.
“I wanted to have his baby before it was too late and he [Whitrow] was very, very honest with him [Angus] and he accepted that and was a wonderful father.”
Anxious
Ms Imrie asked Mr Whitrow, who was divorced with two adult children, for a child when she was in her early 40s, saying she did not expect him to contribute towards the baby’s upbringing.
He had received a Bafta nomination and was best known for playing longsuffering Mr Bennet in the hit 1995 BBC TV adaptation of Pride And Prejudice.
Ms Imrie became pregnant aged 41 and gave birth to Angus in 1994.
Now 23, her son is also an actor and was cast in the Archers in 2014.
In her 2011 autobiography, the Happy Hoofer, Ms Imrie spoke of her “friendship” with Mr Whitrow. She wrote: “We gradually got to know each other and grew very fond. He thought perhaps in time... but because Ben had a grown-up family I was very anxious not to upset them.
“Ben and I walked on the beach one day as I laid out my terms.
“As long as he understood I would not ask for anything, I wouldn’t want to live with him, or marry him, would never ask for money for the child and I would be responsible for choosing and paying for the child’s education, accommodation, clothing – everything. I was trying to be clear and true.
“Some people might say calculated but I would say I was being honest.
“If Ben could take all that on board, I said, then his offer to fulfil my wish for a child would be wonderful.
“He has proved to be a marvellous father to Angus. His whole family has been very welcoming.”
Ms Imrie has remained single since and regards marriage as a “trap”.
In an interview this week she added: “I’m just grabbing life, every second and every challenge. None of us knows how long we’ve got. I’m not being dramatic but I’m not stupid either and time’s running out a bit.”
Ms Imrie, one of Britain’s best-loved actresses, regularly plays the respected matriarch or demure older woman.
She has starred in a host of plays, TV shows and films including Bridget Jones’s Diary, Calendar Girls and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
In Pride and Prejudice, Mr Whitrow won praise as the quietly hilarious buffer to Alison Steadman’s chaotic Mrs Bennet. He was also known for his career in the theatre and as the voice of Fowler in the animation film Chicken Run.