I CAN’T IMAGINE HAVING KIDS WITH ANYONE BUT LIZ. WE EVEN LOOK SO ALIKE

In a tribute to the incomparable Lynda Lee-Potter, who wrote for Weekend until her death in 2004, extracts from three of her most memorable interviews

She was the greatest interviewer, who not only succeeded in extracting telling soundbites from her subjects, but often managed to manoeuvre them into full heart-to-heart confessions. Lynda Lee-Potter, always courteous but searingly honest about both herself and her interviewees, frequently charmed the celebrities she met. If she didn’t, however, she was not the least bothered, once saying, ‘I never worry about hurting people’s feelings. If you have that anxiety you really shouldn’t be doing this job.’ She loved people who, when things got tough, could pick themselves up, dust themselves down and pin a smile on their face – and she adored sharing a bottle of champagne. Fascinated by the aspirations of the famous, she liked to delve into their upbringings, often uncovering extraordinarily tragic tales. Above all she loved to laugh. How we all still miss her...

In 1999, Hugh Grant gave this hilarious interview to Lynda. At the time he was living with Elizabeth Hurley – though it would end the following May. He now has five children and is married to Swedish TV producer Anna Eberstein.

Hugh Grant is currently starring with Julia Roberts in the hugely successful film Notting Hill. He’s been described as the man most American women want to sleep with. Wherever he goes, girls fall for him in droves. Unfortunately he’s spoken for, having lived with the exquisite Elizabeth Hurley for more than a decade, but he loves the adulation. ‘I wish there was a lot more adulation and girls falling over,’ he says. ‘What little I get I thoroughly enjoy. I’m certainly not immune to the vanity charge that brings. But it’s a cheap thrill. It’s rather like eating a bar of chocolate. It makes you feel better for ten minutes, then you feel worse.’

He insists the real Hugh Grant is nowhere near as nice as the sweetnatured characters he plays with such consummate charm.

I fly to New York to meet him, at the Mercer hotel where he’s staying under a Scottish pseudonym so he doesn’t have to answer the phone if besotted strangers call. I’d heard he’s fanatically tidy, so I’m surprised when he opens the door to his room to see an unmade bed at four in the afternoon and a room littered with papers and scripts. ‘I’m tidy by comparison to Elizabeth,’ he says. ‘You’ve never known a messier person in your life. She comes in, sits in the middle of the floor. Then she takes everything out of her bag and spreads it around till the whole room is a tip.’

He met Elizabeth in 1987 when they both auditioned for the film Rowing In The Wind, and he fancied her like mad. On location they were staggered to find startling similarities between them. ‘It’s alarming,’ he says, ‘maybe we’re both

horrible narcissists so were attracted to someone who looked rather like themselves. Her mum’s a teacher, so is mine, her dad was in the Army and mine was briefly. It was spooky, she’d read all the same books and we had the same sense of humour. People thought we were brother and sister. Maybe we’re more different now. She looks like a supermodel. And I’m…’ He pauses. ‘A superstar?’ I suggest. ‘Well no,’ he says, ‘more an ageing, knackered old man.’

In truth he and Elizabeth are blessed with physical perfection, which gives them the added invaluable gift of total confidence. Recently Liz said that Hugh drives her demented, but she couldn’t imagine having children with anybody else and she likes the idea of their genes uniting. ‘I rather feel the same,’ he says, ‘and probably I do drive her demented. I’m sure I am irritating, but I wouldn’t say tolerance is her greatest quality. She has very strong opinions about how life should be and how the day should be and what restaurant we should be going to, and woe betide anyone who dares to differ. She has a frightful temper. I’d do anything to avoid a row but she shouts and there’s a bit of throwing and people cower. There was one particular telephone she used to throw at me an awful lot, and she once hit me with a pestle, as in a pestle and mortar, in our kitchen. We call it our wrestle with the pestle. I’ve hardly hit her, but I once gave her a dead leg. She’s strong as an ox, she has the strength of insanity I always think. She’d be all right whatever happened. She’d be all right in an Iranian jail. She’d end up running it.’

Liz is famed for looking dazzling at movie premieres, though her appearance in that famous safety- pin frock was not planned. ‘I remember her calling up some designers saying, “I haven’t got anything to wear, can I borrow something?” They didn’t know who she was and they all said “No,” except for Versace who said, “We might have something.” We collected it with barely enough time to change so she just slung it on.’ Occasionally Elizabeth asks Hugh which dress she should wear, which makes him nervous. ‘What I’ve realised is that it’s not an open question. There is a correct answer. If it’s a choice between A or B and she’s already decided on B, I’d bloody better choose B. She truly doesn’t really know how eccentric she is. She lives in a sort of strange Hurley World. She never watches TV, for instance. I sit there with my slack jaw in front of rubbish. She can’t bear the noise so she has to leave the room, and she’ll never admit she’s wrong over anything. Everyone’s frightened of her. Have you met her? She’s terrifying, terrifying.’

He says she’s the only person he’s ever been in love with, though he’s wary of stating they’ll be together for ever. ‘It’s dangerous, like doing a Hello! interview, but I adore her. It would be a very weird thought to imagine life without her. When you get a bit of fame is the time when you need someone who is totally unimpressed and knows you for who you really are.’

Hugh’s acting talent comes from his mother Fynvola, who’s a brilliant mimic. ‘Elizabeth loves my mum’s jokes and they get on very well. When

she comes over Mum plays the piano and Elizabeth plays the recorder. I make it sound like the Waltons, but they both like that kind of thing. But my mother’s not a Versace girl, she’s more of a Peter Jones girl. My parents live in a world that’s disinterested in showbusiness. She went to a dinner party and a man sitting next to her said, “I hear you have two sons. What do they do?” She said, “One’s a merchant banker and the other’s a film star.” He said, “How very interesting, which bank?”’

When he and his older brother Jamie were children his mother used to do a lot of funny characters. ‘If we had to get to bed quickly she’d turn into Brünnhilde, a German au pair, and she could get us into the bath and into bed in two seconds. These days I find German women curiously attractive.’

Despite his success, he seems vaguely dissatisfied. ‘I’ve spent five years flitting around the world having the life I always felt I wanted – aeroplanes, hotels, a bit of glitz. I may be ready for a little less glitz now. But then if I ring a restaurant and say, “Can I have a table for four in the name of Hugh Grant,” and they say, “No, sorry, we’re full,” I suddenly find myself on a terrible high horse. I moan, “I can’t bear to be on another plane,” but then if someone said, “OK, all that side of your life has gone and you’re back to Hugh Grant 1991...” it does slightly call your bluff. The fact is, I want a bit of both.’

Hugh and Elizabethin 1999