Julie Andrews

ON HER ENCHANTED CAREER, HER TROUBLED CHILDHOOD AND THE WICKED FUN OF HER LATEST ROLE

Julie Andrews is so famous for her voice that sometimes it seems like it’s more famous than she is. “I could go anywhere in the world and not be recognized until I open my mouth,” she says with a laugh as she talks to Parade from her home in Sag Harbor, N.Y.

It ’s the voice that had a four-octave range when she began performing as a child, and that led to her iconic roles on stage ( My Fair Lady and Camelot) and screen, including Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music and Victor/Victoria, as well as narrating and voicing characters in Enchanted and the Shrek and Despicable Me f ranchises. Now, the mother of five—and grandmother to 10 and great-grandmother to three—puts her distinctive British voice to work in a wickedly funny role as the narrator of the new Netflix series Bridgerton (available Dec. 25).

In Bridgerton, she’s Lady Whistledown, “a mysterious and rather sharp-tongued gossip writer of the day,” says Andrews, adding that her character’s very first line “is something like, ‘Of all bitches, human or other wise, there’s none worse than the gossip columnist.’ ” The stylish period drama is based on the best-selling historical romance novel series about marriage, manners and morals in and around London in the early 1800s by author Julia Quinn. The story follows the lives of the eight siblings in the powerful Bridgerton family intermingling with other families in their upper social circle.

Andrews, 85, calls her character “a tartar, and a bit of a naughty woman.” And while she doesn’t appear onscreen, Lady Whistledown is central to the drama: By writing a scandal sheet for the highest rungs on society’s ladder, she holds the puppet strings of practically everyone and drives the action. “I occasionally guide it, twist it, point it in some direction or another,” she says. “I can make or break anybody, it seems, if I wish.”

Andrews describes the show as “scandalous and romantic and full of intrigue.” No surprise, then, that the book was brought to the small screen by Shonda Rhimes, who created Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal. “It ’s glamour, [and] how do the other half live?” says Andrews. “I think it ’s all part of the stories that we loved f rom childhood, really.”

AN UN-FAIRY-TALE BEGINNING

“We were a very poor family in my youth; very poor, indeed,” says Andrews, which is why “everything about grand ladies and royalty and beautiful gowns and all of that meant a great deal to my rather fertile brain.” In fact, like so many of the fairy tales she would later star in, she even made her own three wishes as a child. “I do remember saying once, ‘I only ask for three things: a carpet in my bathroom, a car and a swimming pool in my garden.’ ”

Andrews was born in Walton-on-Thames outside of London and raised by her mother, Barbara, a vaudeville performer, and Ted Wells, a teacher—the man she thought was her father, only to learn as a teenager that she was actually the daughter of her mother’s extramarital affair. When Andrews was 4, her parents divorced and her mother married performer Ted Andrews. Her mother and stepfather were alcoholics, and her stepfather was abusive. However, he provided Andrews with her first singing lessons and pushed her into performing with her undeniable vocal talent—a rare ability to sing the F above high C.

She sang for British troops during World War II and on BBC radio broadcasts and, after making her first big professional stage debut at age 12, never looked back. At 13, she performed the British national anthem for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth I. “What a thrill,” she says. “I admire Her Majesty very, very much.” (It was another thrill for her when, in 2000, Queen Elizabeth II named her a dame.)

As her career flourished, the young Andrews tried to help her flailing parents, even paying the mortgage on their home. “I’m very glad that I did live through that,” she says. “It did forge some resilience and perhaps a kind of backbone.” It ’s also how she discovered her passion for writing, as she used it as an outlet to escape the stress of her home life. “I wrote stories for myself,” she says. “It ’s a way of going into a fantasy place that ’s safe and fun.”

Her early years performing marked the first of what she calls the three building blocks of her career. She was still a teen when she entered the second: Broadway. Andrews made her American theater debut in 1954 in The Boy Friend, starred as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and then married her childhood sweetheart, theater set and costume designer Tony Walton. In 1960, she began a nearly two-year run as Queen Guenevere in Camelot, which drew the attention of entertainment mogul Walt Disney, who offered her the lead as the magical singing nanny in Mary Poppins. That vaulted her into the third block of her career: Hollywood.

RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

Mary Poppins in 1964 and The Sound of Music the following year were hits, but Andrews wasn’t prepared for the stardom that came with it. “I don’t think anybody could be!” she says. “I was learning on my feet as fast as I could.”

Her career was soaring (see “Role Call” below), but there were changes at home: She divorced Walton after eight years of marriage and, two years later, in 1969, married writer and filmmaker Blake Edwards, the director of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the Pink Panther film series. “He made me laugh so hard, because his wit and wisdom were pretty great,” she says. The pair worked together ( S.O.B., 10) and blended their families—her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton and his kids Jennifer and Geoffrey Edwards—and together

adopted daughters Amy and Joanna f rom Vietnam. They were married for 41 years, until his death in 2010.

Of her remarkable early success, “I seemed to sometimes be in the right place at the right time,” she says humbly. But in 1997, it looked like her luck ran out when surgery to remove noncancerous nodules on her vocal cords irreparably damaged her singing voice. “Once I had the operation, I didn’t sing anymore,” she says. “I was very f rightened. It felt as if my voice were such a huge part of my personality, and it took me a few years to realize that there were other things.”

A NEW CHAPTER

Andrews has partnered with her daughter Walton Hamilton, 58, on a memoir and more than 30 books for children. This year, they launched the podcast Julie’s Library, on which they read their favorite children’s books. Walton Hamilton says she seeks stories “that don’t need the art to bring the story to life,” plus she uses music and sound effects to enhance the readings.

Post-pandemic, Andrews has plans to narrate the fantasy adventure film The King’s Daughter and voice Gru’s mother in Minions: The Rise of Gru.

In the meantime, she Zooms with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and, decades of fame aside, puts them first when talking about her legacy. “As long as they all remember me fondly,” she says, “I will be very, very happy.”

Visit Parade.com/andrews for 25 throwback photos of the star through the years.