Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Britt on life with singer in the 70s
BRITT Ekland has revealed more details of Rod Stewart’s pennypinching – saying the rocker charged her rent when they were dating.
The actress, 77, said the rich Maggie May singer made her pay to stay with him despite him not needing the money.
Looking back on her relationship with Rod in the 70s, she said: “I had to pay $100 a month board and lodgings when I was living with him.
“I would go shopping with him and watch him buy clothes from Yves Saint Laurent but nothing for me.
“He did used to like to wear my underwear though. He’d wear these baggy satin trousers and needed little satin pants. Rod would wear my knickers. He liked them.”
Rod, now 75, was once branded as “tight as two coats of paint” by Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. In 2018 he told how, among his money-saving tips, he refills his children’s fizzy drink bottles to save cash. Speaking to promote her theatre tour in April, Britt said times have changed hugely from when she was a Bond Girl in The Man with the Golden Gun and sexism was rife in the industry.
The actress said men in prominent positions in the film industry would make physical moves on her.
She told Event magazine: “It was pretty much what you expected when you went along for a job with a director or a producer..
“Girls just went with it. You smiled politely and, yes, you did have to do things you didn’t want to do, but show me an actress of my age who hasn’t had that experience. It was a very different time. I think it’s amazing these #Metoo girls can get up and scream and shout and everyone will listen.
“When I started out it wasn’t so easy for women, especially if you wanted to work and get on.
“My first job as an actress on the stage in Sweden involved me walking around for hours every day wearing just fishnets, high heels and a swimming costume.
“I’d have been 18 or 19 years old and I thought I was lucky. At school when you started wearing a bra, the boy sitting behind you would flick it undone and everyone would laugh. Now that boy would be in serious trouble. Back then it was hard to be a woman. Nowadays it’s very hard to be a man.”
Thankfully on screen she rarely had problems with her leading men.
She said Michael Caine was a friend when she had troubles in her marriage to Peter Sellers and Roger Moore was “joyous” to be around.
Asked what advice she would give to young actresses today, she said: “I tell them they must be independent and to look after themselves.
“You can work after 50 for as long as you have worked before 50 if you take care of yourself and keep pushing.
“All women need to know this so they never give up.”
Britt stars in The Cat and the Canary on tour until June 6 in the UK.