My passion for Percy Joan Collins

In an explosive extract from her uncensored diaries, Dame Joan Collins reveals the truth about the love match everyone said would never last.

- Joan Collins

I was named Joan Henrietta Collins, but perhaps you may know me better as ‘Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan’ from the TV series Dynasty, or perhaps Edith Keeler, the saintly missionary worker on Star Trek.

I was born on 23 May, sometime between the end of the Great Depression and the beginning of the Second World War … Oscar Wilde once said, “Any woman who would reveal her age, would reveal anything.” So there! You can always Google it.

I am a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a sister, an aunt and a loyal friend. I have three children, three grandchildren and 13 godchildren, who range in age from nine months to 57 years old, and some of whom may not even remember that I’m their godmother.

I am an actress – I don’t ever refer to myself as an actor – an author, a producer, a feminist, a philanthropist and an entrepreneur. I have been married five times (and by far the happiest and longest is my last husband of nearly 20 years, Percy Gibson).

Monday APRIL 10, 2000

Katy [Joan Collins’ youngest daughter] and I were met at San Francisco airport by Percy Gibson and Charles Duggan, the producer of Love Letters. He also produced my US tour of Private Lives and is a great friend.

We chatted happily in the car, and I gently admonished Charles about the fact that he wouldn’t let me change my awful hotel in New York. “That’s not true,” said Percy. “I called your press agent several times to see if you were happy there, and each time he said you were fine.” He looked quite concerned.

Charles piped up, “I heard him telling that to Jeffrey on the phone.”