I miss my husband... but of course you still feel desire
Dame Judi on life and love at 82
DAME Judi Dench refuses to give up on love, even though the loss of her husband still hits her like “a hammer”.
The actress, whose husband of 30 years Michael Williams died in 2001, is dating again and admits that at 82 she can still “feel desire”. She said: “Does that ever go? “To the older reader, I would say, ‘Don’t give up’.”
Dame Judi, who stars in new Victoria and Abdul, about Queen Victoria’s relationship with an Indian clerk, has been dating David Mills since 2010.
She said it was “too complicated” to refer to him as a boyfriend or “partner”.
The couple met when conservationist David, 74, invited her to open the squirrel sanctuary at his wildlife centre. She told the Radio Times: “I don’t know what the word is. I loathe ‘partner’ – I loathe all the words. I just say, ‘This is David,’ and he says, ‘This is Judi’.” But the Oscarfilm winning actress admitted she still grieved for actor Michael, who died from cancer at the age of 65.
During their marriage, Michael sent her a red rose every Friday, and they starred together in the sitcom A Fine Romance.
She said: “I miss him but I talk a lot about him. Little things can still catch you unawares.
“You can be laughing and quite suddenly it’s as if somebody comes along with a hammer.”