PETER SELLERS’ WIFE BRITT EKLAND REVEALS
SWEDISH actress Britt Ekland has revealed how husband Peter Sellers controlled her whole life – destroying her career and even dictating what she wore.
While the comedy genius was one of Britain’s best-loved performers, a new documentary made to coincide with the 40th anniversary of his death reveals in private he was difficult and domineering, especially with the women he loved.
Sellers’ second wife Ekland, now 77, also believes Peter suffered from bipolar disorder, a condition that wasn’t understood back then.
Speaking in the documentary, she says: “He decided what I was going to wear. I had no say in it.
“He just pre-decided without even asking me.
“He was a very tormented soul who should have had more help.
“But instead he was enabled, because he was such a valuable asset.”
After starring in 1950s radio comedy The Goons, Sellers found international fame in The Millionairess with Sophia Loren. everything
Bungling
He played the bungling Inspector Clouseau six times in the Pink Panther films and took on three roles in Dr Strangelove.
But, despite his talent, Sellers hated himself, once saying: “As far as I’m aware, I have no personality of my own whatsoever. I have no character to offer the public.”
The documentary, Peter Sellers: A State of Comic Ecstasy, came about after his grandson Will wanted to learn more about the man who had died from a heart attack aged 54 before he was born.
Will’s father – Peter’s son, Michael, from his first marriage to actress Anne Howe – died 15 years ago.
“I had never wanted to learn about my grandad and his relationship with my father until I became a father myself two years ago,” Will says. “When I was aged 13 to 15 that would have been the time to ask my father about him but because we were living apart after my parents’ divorce I didn’t get that opportunity.
“We were better towards the end of his life when I was about 18, when I would see him more often.
“It’s a weird mirror to his and my grandad’s relationship as they were good friends right at the end but had
■ patches in between where they weren’t.”
Will, 33, felt it was important Ekland share “her side of the story” for the film, although he was terrified of what he might discover after convincing her to talk along with other former love interests Nanette Newman, Sinead Cusack and Janette Scott.
“I had prepared myself for the worst but I didn’t hear anything that was that bad,” he says. “Everyone he proposed to said he was a hopeless romantic.
“He fell in love easily and would be ‘all-in’ straight away.”
Sellers was married four times in his endless quest for the perfect woman.
At the time of meeting Ekland in February 1964, he had won huge praise for Dr Strangelove and was already a big
Hollywood name, although his first marriage to Will’s grandmother, Anne, had ended.
Ekland was a naive 22-year-old blonde bombshell who had arrived in London to be launched as 20th Century Fox’s newest star.
Sellers, 17 years her senior, spotted her picture in the newspaper and set up a meeting, according to Ekland, who has never spoken about Sellers to a documentary maker before.
She says: “I was staying in the Dorchester and I was in the bath when there was a knock at the door.
“I wrapped a towel around me and rushed to open it and there was this very tall gentleman who said: ‘Hello, I’m Burt, I’m Mr Sellers’ valet.’ Would I like to