What ho, Jeeves! Frisky Sarah’s new love is 20 years her junior

Oscar- nominated sarah miles is famed for drinking her own urine each day and for her roll call of famous lovers. she married screenwriter robert Bolt (twice) and had affairs with Laurence olivier, her co- star on ryan’s daughter robert mitchum and film-maker steven spielberg. and now the spirited actress has added to their number, acquiring a new lover at the age of 79.

the essex-born star tells me she has been spending lockdown in her medieval manor house in West sussex with her new partner, who is a lawyer and 20 years her junior.

‘He’s called Jeeves — the name was his idea,’ she giggles girlishly. ‘and we’ve been having a wonderful time.’

miles is coy about divulging his full identity, revealing only that he lives locally and that their romance did not flourish through secret trysts and snatched kisses. ‘ We started playing chess and backgammon and then things developed,’ she says.

she was less forthcoming about his attributes as a lover. ‘i don’t discuss my love life on the phone.’

Jeeves’s nickname is typical of the actress’s playful and mischievous character.

she called olivier ‘Lionel’ during their on- off 20-year affair, because ‘ he was obsessed with richard the Lionheart’. He used to call her ‘Pussycat’.

she lived briefly with spielberg in Los angeles (‘He was charming, just like a little boy — though it was our dogs who fell in love first’). she also had a schoolgirl crush on her roedean contemporary, the future Baroness chalker, and was mesmerised by ‘ her ample breasts’.

renowned for her quirky eccentricities and belief in crop circles, time bends and the healing power of dolphins, miles has turned her home into a healing centre. ‘ she had people living in yurts and popping in and out,’ a prepandemic visitor tells me.

Her previous lover, a gambling addict, cleaned her out completely and she vowed never to have another partner. so it is good to hear she has changed her mind and returned to the amorous fray.