There are no words to describe Judi’s ‘chap’
God bless Dame Judi Dench, who is one of the few people to speak sense each time she opens her mouth. The actress, who has been in a relationship with conservationist David Mills for the past few years, has given an interview to Good Housekeeping in which she announces that, at 82, she is too old to get married again. “He is not going to propose. No, no, no, no, no.”
Quite right, too. Life is too short to spend it discussing a table plan, let alone having to do it twice. The only downside to this is that she now struggles to find an adequate word to describe him. “I don’t know what the word is because I don’t like the word ‘partner’. Partner is something to do with dancing.”
I’ve always found it puts me in mind of someone with whom you do business, not the dishes (for that is the definition of long-term love, surely). Boyfriend/girlfriend is a tricky proposition for anybody over the age of 40 to pull off – it smacks of someone trying to recapture their youth. Better half? Significant other? Bloke who takes the bins out? Dame Judi likes the word “chap”, but any other suggestions will be eagerly received at the email address above.