Super-fit Dame Joan, 84, tells Percy, 51: Shape up!
WHEN Dame Joan Collins, 84, made Percy Gibson her fifth husband, she was asked about the difficulties of marrying a man 33 years her junior.
‘If he dies, he dies,’ she memorably quipped. But 15 years since their wedding, the energetic actress is in dispute with half-Peruvian theatre manager Percy over his failure to keep up with her.
Dame Joan admits she nags Percy over his failure to stay in shape. ‘I tell my husband, who’s 51 — I think, I never remember! — that he’s got to exercise more,’ she reveals. ‘Because I exercise more than he does.’
The Dynasty star, who still works out two or three times a week, says everyone — not just poor Percy — should make more effort to keep fit.
‘People need to take better care in their youth and middle age so that they don’t fall apart when they turn 65 or 70.’
Dame Joan met Percy when he was company manager for the North American tour of her stage show, Love Letters, in 2000. She was in a relationship with art dealer Robin Hurlstone at the time, but it began to disintegrate after he refused to join her on the two-month tour.
Her previous husband was Swedish playboy Peter Holm, whom she divorced in 1987 after just two years.
Before him was The Beatles manager Ron Kass, to whom she was wed for 11 years. The couple were divorced in 1983 and he died of cancer three years later at the age of 51.
Her second husband was actor and singer Anthony Newley, and her first, matinee idol Maxwell Reed.
‘I don’t feel any different physically to when I was 45,’ Joanie adds. ‘Taking care of your appearance is very important.
‘Other than that I managed to raise three children — none of whom became drug addicts or committed suicide or became alcoholics, which is what a lot of children of famous people do — I’m most proud of the fact that I’m almost the longestworking actress in film.’
IS THE Blair name finally losing its appeal?
I ask only because the organisation set up by Tony Blair’s wife, Cherie, to promote ‘the sustainable empowerment of women and girls in the developing world’, has registered a drop in its income.
The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women suffered a fall of £543,000 last year, according to accounts filed with the Charity Commission.
Total income was still £2.8 million, although spending was down by £305,000 at £2.5 million. Despite the fall, Cherie’s charity managed to boost its reserves by £830,000 to £3.8 million. This was because it spent £ 283,000 less than it received, and benefited from a £547,000 foreign exchange gain.
A spokesman said: ‘The fall in income was expected, as the drop represents donations tied to a number of specific long-term projects which have now ended.’