Joan Collins at 90: I’m as old as I feel, and that’s 40

AGE IS JUST a number to Joan Collins – and her number is still 40. The eternally glamorous grande dame of Hollywood, who is preparing to celebrate her 90th birth day next spring, insists she still thinks of herself as a “40-year-old woman”.

- Mike Parker

In a new interview, the irrepressible Dynasty legend and veteran of more than 70 films also says she doesn’t notice the 33-year age gap between herself and fifth husband Percy Gibson, 56, with whom she has just celebrated their 20th anniversary.

“I think what is important is not age, but how you look, feel and behave,” the British star tells the September issue of Saga magazine, which is out on Tuesday,

In fact, she believes it to be “tremendously rude” to ask a woman her age – or even discuss it.

“My mother’s generation never did it,” she adds. “But you know, people have been calling me an older woman since I was 38!”

Dame Joan, who is also celebrating the publication of her 17th book – My Unapologetic Diaries – says her secret to looking good, aside from eating well and exercising regularly, is simply “having great parents who gave me good genes”.

She also doesn’t smoke, has managed to avoid drugs and excessive drinking during her Hollywood heyday, and moisturises “all the time”.

“I never put my face in the sun. I only allow my body and legs to tan,” she adds.

Dame Joan has just finished filming a 10-episode medieval drama series opposite Jane Seymour called Glow and Darkness and will also return to cinema screens later this year in a movie adaptation of the stage musical Tomorrow Morning. Having long battled against the “ageist attitudes” of film and TV studios, she believes the tide is now turning, with older women increasingly being cast in lead roles.