Dame Judi Dench has no plans to marry again.
The 82-year-old actress’ husband Michael Williams passed away in 2001 and while she is madly in love with her ”chap” David Mills, she believes she is too old to wed once more.
She told Good Housekeeping magazine: ”He is not going to propose. No, no, no, no, no. Let’s just pull ourselves together and be our age!”
And although she hates when people refer to David, 74, as her ”partner”, Judi couldn’t be happier with her man.
She said: ”I don’t know what the word is because I don’t like the word ‘partner’. Partner is something to do with dancing. Partner – horrible word. Friend? No. Boyfriend? No. Chap? Will chap do?
”One hot night during the summer, we swam and then had a glass of champagne in the garden and I said, ‘This is so fantastic’. But perhaps if I was a romantic I’d have been cool and calm about it. I get a bit over-excited about things.
”I love having a good laugh. A sense of humour is the most attractive thing of all. It’s essential.”
Judi and Michael’s 30-year marriage produced one child, daughter Finty, and Judi admitted she had always hoped for a large family.
She said: ”I wish I’d had lots more children. I had planned to have six, easily. The rewards you get out of it. Finty and I are so close.”
Judi also revealed that the death of her ‘Victoria and Abdul’ co-star Tim Pigott-Smith, earlier this year, made her consider her own mortality.
She said: ”He was a great mate of mine. And then suddenly you hear he is not there any more. That not only frightens me, but it also depresses the hell out of me.”
Meanwhile, although Judi believes roles are better now for women than ever before, she believes that the gender pay gap will never go away.
She said: ”Salary, parts, you name it: it’s better now than it’s ever been, I think, but it will never be on a parity. Never. No matter how much we speak out. We are put in our place.”
