Britt Ekland: No regrets as Britt tells all in a personal show

"The problem with putting on a one-woman show about your life that is only to last an hour is which bits to leave out," says Britt Ekland in her distinctive Swedish accent.

"I have kept diaries since I was 14-years-old so I have spent the last few years going through them deciding what people want to hear about."

You can imagine those diaries would be worth a fortune, but as Britt says she only has an hour for her "Audience With" tour which comes to Scarborough later this month.

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"Most people want to know what it was like being married to Peter Sellers because he was such a complex and tortured man."

Britt was just 21 when she married the comedian who was 17 years her senior and later recognised as suffering from bipolar disorder. She had known him just two-and a-half weeks.

"At that time people knew very little about mental illness. I knew he took different kinds of pills. I came from Sweden; I had never taken pills in my life. Alcohol was our thing. I was married to him for four years and anyone who knew him said I deserved a medal, but there were many positive things as well. Of course I shouldn't have married at 21 someone I had only known for two weeks – that goes without saying. I am always telling my children not to do what I did." Britt has three children, daughter Victoria to Peter Sellers, Nikolai, whose father is the record producer Lou Adler and 22-year-old TJ to the Stray Cats drummer Jim McDonnell, aka Slim Jim Phantom, who was 19 years her junior.

All of her children live in Los Angeles, one of the three places Britt calls home along with her native Sweden and London.

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"They are creative and fun and we like each other. All parents love their children, but not everyone can say they like them as well. We love being around each other – although not all the time," she adds with a laugh.

As well as her marriages, Bond Girl Britt (she starred

as Mary Goodnight in the Man With The Golden Gun alongside Roger Moore)

did little to shed her sex kitten image.

"My life has never been private, but being an actress you put yourself in the limelight. You use the media as much as the media uses you. I have appeared in inappropriate dresses to get media attention, it is just the way it is."

Highly publicised relationships, including Rod Stewart and Warren Beatty, assured that Britt was never far from the camera's glare.

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But it was a different girl pretty much fresh out of drama school who arrived in London after she had been spotted and signed up by 20th Century Fox in Rome.

It was in London while staying at the Dorchester Hotel where Peter Sellers lived that she met her future husband in a whirlwind romance. He was known to be insanely jealous of his beautiful young wife and over protective.

"Being married to him was like going through a washing machine going round and round and round and coming out at the other end."

Despite her obvious beauty, Britt says she was insecure about the way she looked.

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"Actors are very insecure people. I never thought I was particularly beautiful or extraordinary. I always thought I was fat. In this industry everyone is obsessed with youth."

Having had her third child at the age of 46, Britt says she did become particularly insecure about the way she looked in her early 50s.

"People still expect you to look young and sexy in your early 50s and it was difficult to do that. Now I have accepted, and I make sure everyone else has accepted, that I'm an old woman. I am 67 and if I look good it's because I'm healthy and live a healthy lifestyle. I feel as good as I did in my 30s."

She has always declined to comment on whether she has had any cosmetic procedures, saying it is a matter for her although there are many who have speculated.

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"I believe life is split into two stages: 15 to 50 and 50 until you go up there," she looks heavenwards.

"I am in my older life and I am determined that I will not become like some older people I know who moan about their hip replacement or pains in their joints."

She says she has a healthy diet, although still likes to drink champagne, and power walks her beloved chihuahua dog every morning. Another reason Britt is concerned to keep herself fit and healthy was a her mother's battle with Alzheimer's which started in her mid-60s.

"Back then doctors said her symptoms were just a sign of her getting old, but eventually, after she had a complete breakdown, she was diagnosed and doctors said there was no cure and to just go home."

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It took a further 11 painful years for Britt's mother, Mae-Britt, to eventually die from the disease.

"There was no support network and no information," recalls Britt who became an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society 14 years ago and since then she has raised money and awareness of the cruel condition.

"Things are much better now. People are so much better informed and there is a lot of research into the condition. There are pills you can take which don't stop the disease, but if taken early enough can slow it down."

As she prepares a gruelling tour of the UK with the one- woman show she has been planning for five years, has she any regrets?

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"Not one," she says quickly. "There is no point in looking back. You can only change now, you cannot change yesterday.

"I am very much a person who lives for today – I guess that's why I am still working. I love to go out in front of people and perform. It is nerve-wracking doing a one-woman show, as you are on your own, But it gives me great pleasure and that's what keeps me going."

An Audience With Britt Ekland is at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough on Saturday, May 29. For tickets, call the box office on 01723 370541.

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