Dame Joan Collins has candidly discussed her past decision to have an abortion when she was building her career.
The 88-year-old actress was aged 26 when she made the decision to abort her baby – with the procedure being carried out at a time when abortions were illegal in the UK.
Dame Joan discussed her choice to delay becoming a parent in a new episode of Pier’s Morgan’s Life Stories which is set to air on ITV on Sunday night.
She explained her reasons for going through with the procedure – which was made at a time when she was engaged to American actor Warren Beatty, who was the father.
She said: “I had an abortion. It would have been the death of my career, and I was by then 26.
“Of course I hesitated but I realised that if I was going to have a child I was going to be able to bring the child up properly and I believed very strongly that I'm in charge of my body.
“I was a feminist before the word was heard and I shall do what I felt was right for me. It would have been wrong to have done that. It would have ruined my life… it would have ruined my life.”
Questioned if she had a “tinge of regret” over the choice, Dame Joan replied: “No, not one.”
Dame Joan first revealed her decision in her 1978 autobiography in which she explained she had become pregnant by Warren.
Abortion was legalised in the UK in 1967.
Dame Joan went on to have three children later in life, a daughter named Tara and a son named Alexander, from her marriage to singer Anthony Newley – the actress’s second husband.
She then had a second daughter, named Katyana, with her third husband, businessman Ron Kass.
Dame Joan is currently married to her fifth husband, Percy Gibson, who she wed in 2002.
Her first marriage was with Northern Irish actor Maxwell Reed between 1952 and 1956, her marriage to Anthony lasted from 1963 to 1971, and her marriage to Ron lasted from 1972 to 1983.
Her forth husband was Swedish pop singer Peter Holm, which lasted from 1985 to 1987.
Elsewhere in her interview with Piers, Dame Joan reveals she is unfamiliar with housework.
She says: “I don't know how to use a hoover. I'm not proud of it, Piers.”
Shocked, the show host said: “You don't know how to use a hoover?” – with Joan joking: “No, our hoover it's like being in the front of a 747.”
She added: “I do do the washing up. I put them under the tap and I've got a little brush and I brush them and then I put them in the thing that makes them dry.
“No we don't have hot and cold running staff you know. It's just Percy and me.”
