My life through a lens

Stars share the stories behind their favourite photographs. This week it’s actress, friend of royalty and legendary Bond Girl Britt Ekland, 78

1943 Growing up in Sweden was pure bliss. Ours was a typical upper-middle class family who had everything you could want, such as skiing holidays in the winter. I hated school though. I wanted to be a vet until I was told I’d need another seven years of study. I was truly fat as a child – here I am as a baby – but the weight came off and I looked pretty good, so then theatre became what I wanted to do.

1964 Peter Sellers was under the spell of astrologer Maurice Woodruff, who said he’d meet someone with the initials BE who would be important in his life. But of course, the director Blake Edwards also had those initials. Soon after we’d met, Peter told the press we were going to marry, and here we are, little more than three weeks after that, at Guildford registry office.

1965 I was very close friends with Princess Margaret – here we are on our way to the theatre. We’d holiday in Sardinia and go water-skiing on the lake in Windsor. She made it perfectly clear that she was Her Royal Highness though, and those who knew her would call her ma’am but also PM. She could be very funny and easy to be with, and then suddenly switch off and become HRH, Princess Margaret. I was well-educated and knew my manners and etiquette, so I was never a problem. She liked me very much – she loved my hair.

1974 There were many reasons to adore Roger Moore. He was witty and sophisticated, and he would also make fun of himself. He was a wonderful person, always ready with a hug and a kind word. We stayed good friends for more than four decades and I shall always cherish that. He was ‘my’ Bond – and this is us after The Man With The Golden Gun came out.

1976 Rod Stewart wrote You’re In My Heart about me but when we split, he said it’s about Celtic FC, which is perfectly fine. We had met backstage at his show in LA that I went to with Joan Collins and it was love at first sight. We were together for about four years but I made it clear that if he was unfaithful then I wouldn’t stay – he was so I left, no matter how painful it was. A man is a man no matter what his name is.

1983 Wherever I worked my mother Mae britt [pictured] always came. When she was 50 she had ovarian cancer which nearly killed her, and then she got early onset Alzheimer’s. When she died at the age of 78 I was devastated. I took anti-depressants for three days and started to hallucinate, and that’s the last time I ever took them. I deal with that side now by powerwalking. 2002 I first met Christopher Lee while shooting The Wicker Man in the 70s and then when he played the villain in The Man With The Golden Gun. He was closed and solitary during filming, but a lot softer when he wasn’t in work mode – he couldn’t have been more chatty when I presented him with this award at the Empire Awards. The Wicker Man was tough to shoot. It was supposed to be set on a beautiful sunny island but in reality we were on cliffs in south-west Scotland in late October and the wind was howling – and I was pregnant.

2020 I’m generally in control of what I do – give me a script and I’ll learn it – so reality show The Real Marigold Hotel was like nothing I’ve done before. The others didn’t know each other, but I secretly knew Zandra Rhodes [standing on Britt’s left] would be there, and I think how friendly we were set the tone. We all opened up to each other, compared to one of the earlier series I watched, where it was obvious some didn’t like others. I had a lovely time and miss them all. But not the heat – it ruins your hair.

As told to Jessica Moorhouse. Britt is a patron for the UK leukodystrophy charity Alex TLC campaign for the condition to be added to birth screening in the UK. Visit alextlc.org