Joan: Why I didn’t have Warren Beatty’s baby
JOAN Collins has recalled her passionate romance with Warren Beatty – revealing she felt it was “right” to have an abortion during their relationship in order to protect her career.
In an interview to mark seven decades on screen, Dame Joan, 88, also divulged the help she was given by Marilyn Monroe.
The doomed goddess advised: “Beware of the walls in Hollywood honey...if they don’t get what they want they’ll cancel your contract.”
Dame Joan explained: “This was the casting couch, which I never ever did. Can you imagine how much more successful I would have been?
“There was such an air of misogyny. That was the world and for a lot of young girls at that time, particularly if good-looking, it was tough. I was used to Hollywood men being rude.”
But one man who was not rude to her was 22-year-old rising star Beatty, after their eyes met across a restaurant, where he had been dining with Jane Fonda.
He called Joan, who was then 26, for a date – and shortly afterwards he moved into her apartment.
She admitted: “It was quite a passionate relationship, quite demanding”, before confirming the rumour Beatty wanted sex seven times a day.
Laughing, she said: “He did [want that]. I did not allow that. I said it felt like an oyster in a slot machine.”
The pair celebrated their engagement in 1960 but Joan got pregnant.
She chose to have a termination as having a child “would have been the death of [her] career”.
She added: “I believed very strongly that I’m in charge of my body.
“I was a feminist before the word was heard, and thought I should do what I felt was right for me.
“It would have ruined my life. I didn’t have a tinge of regret.”
She also tells Piers Morgan on Life Stories that she was pursued by many big stars, including Frank Sinatra. He wanted to fly her to Hamburg for a date – but put the phone down when Joan said she was busy working.
Dean Martin banged on her door at four in the morning, saying, “Joanie, I just want to have a drink” – and Richard Burton wanted to bed her.
She refused, saying: “I don’t want to be a notch on your bedpost.”
Asked for the secret to her youthful looks, she added: “Part of it is genetic, part of it is luck and a lot of it is makeup and taking care of your skin. ●●Piers Morgan’s Life Stories: Joan Collins is on ITV tomorrow at 9pm