My mother was a domestic goddess and Mother Earth figure. She was sweet and placid – just what the perfect wife was supposed to be and I was determined not to be.
Doing 20 minutes of stretching, light weights and floor exercises three times a week takes the same amount of time as a long coffee break – and eating a tuna fish salad, sardines on toast or scrambled eggs is surely preferable to a Big Mac or KFC.
But I have had to give up certain things in my life. One is shopping. Two is lunch with the girls. Three is cocktail parties, and four is studying my lines.
I was so fortunate to work closely with the designer Nolan Miller whilst on ‘Dynasty’ to create the wardrobe for Alexis Carrington Colby, and we had great fun sourcing outfits.
And we have not found any generational gap at all. If he wants to go a football game, he goes. If I want to go to a fashion show, I go. We don’t have to do everything together. But we like doing most things together.
I’ve said no to ‘Celebrity Big Brother,’ ‘Strictly,’ and the American one, ‘Dancing With The Stars.’ I don’t feel it’s right for me. I’ve been asked to do reality TV a zillion times. No way. No way. Nobody’s going to get into my living room and see me there.
The sad truth is that most of my husbands turned out to be convincing liars.
I’ve never chased fame. I came into this business to be a theatre actress. I was nine when I first appeared on stage. But I can’t say I would turn my back on fortune. I’m someone who enjoys the benefits of money.
I was voted the most beautiful girl in the world in 1958, and courted by every young, available man in Los Angeles, most of whom I didn’t go out with, by the way.
When I finish dressing before a night out and have put on all the accessories, I usually look at myself in the mirror long and hard and then end up removing something. Whether it’s a belt, bracelet or a bauble, less is always more.
And I think of that again as I’ve written in several of my beauty books, a lot of health comes from the proper eating habits, which are something that – you know, I come from a generation that wasn’t – didn’t have a lot of food.
So-called designer bags are useless, and most are also ugly, faddish and overpriced. Pared down and sleek is always best.
My parents instilled in me that life was going to be very difficult and that I’d have to work for everything.
I’ve spent years when I’ve not been in the limelight at all and I’m perfectly happy living my life without being swooped on by paparazzi.
Botox, I think, is poison, I would never put it into my face, and I’m needle-phobic. I spend a lot of time keeping my face out of the sun and taking care of my skin and wearing make-up.
If you eat junk, you look like junk. People say, ‘It’s not my fault, it’s my glands.’ It’s not; it’s greed!
I was thinking, who of the English actresses in the last 30 or 40 years have achieved as much as I have?
The easiest way to convince my kids that they don’t really need something is to get it for them.
When I was 49, I posed for Playboy – I was very flattered to be asked. I was quite honoured, really, considering that most of the models they feature are in their twenties.
And I used to write novels and little stories and compositions and I – but I put them away because I started acting when I was 17. So there wasn’t much time.
The cosmetics industry has much to answer for. It’s a multi-million- pound confidence trick based on giving women endless hope, courtesy of overpriced little pots.