Dame Joan Collins gave her fans a scare recently when she was airlifted to a hospital in Monaco. The iconic British actress, who became a household name starring in Dynasty, is on the mend after being treated for a pinched nerve in her leg. “She’s back home in St. Tropez and is walking around,” Joan’s friend told Page Six. “She’s 89 and is still walking around in six-inch heels.” Joan’s rep added, “The pain has been excruciating, but fortunately she’s dealt with it, and she’s OK now. She’s in the South of France enjoying the rest of her holiday.”
With a renewed spotlight on Joan, followers are clamoring to know more about the star’s personal life. The gorgeous actress, born in 1933 in Paddington, England, was married a whopping five times! Keep reading to find out more about the stable of men who stole the British bombshell’s heart, below.
In May 1952, Joan became married for the first time at the age of 18. Her husband was famous Irish actor Maxwell Reed, who was 15 years her senior. Years later, she claimed he had sexually assaulted her on their first date after he drugged her. “He gave me the rum and Coke, he gave me this book, which was full of the most explicit, sexually explicit, pictures that I’d ever seen,” she recalled on the Originals podcast, per Los Angeles magazine. “And the next thing I know, I was on the sofa in his sitting room and he had raped me, and I hadn’t known anything about it because he had drugged me.”
She said yes to his proposal months later because he apologized. “And I thought, ‘Well I better because you know, he took my virginity,’” she explained on the podcast. “I really hated him, but I was so filled with guilt, that he had done this thing to me.” They eventually divorced in 1956.
From 1963 to 1971, Joan called British singer-songwriter Anthony Newley her husband. The pair would go on to welcome two children: daughter Tara and son Alexander. During his career, Anthony scored quite a few Top 40 hits as a songwriter, including “Feeling Good,” which was covered by Nina Simone. He also received an Academy Award nomination for the film score of 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
American businessman Ron Kass wooed Joan and put a ring on her finger a year after her divorce from Anthony. “For a year, he bombarded me with love, attention and proposals of marriage,” Joan wrote of Ron in the Daily Mail. They welcomed a daughter, Katyaan, the same year.
However, Ron suffered from substance use disorder which came to a head after he lost a job. “This came as a massive blow to my husband’s ego,” she wrote in the outlet. “It’s at this point, I believe, that Ron started taking drugs. He became terribly uncommunicative — and our money began to run out. So we started downsizing, moving to smaller and smaller houses.” Eventually, they divorced in 1983.
Swedish pop singer Peter Holm was acting as Joan’s manager when they decided to walk down the aisle together in Las Vegas in 1985. Joan has alleged that Peter, who was 14 years her junior, was constantly demanding money. After a bitter separation, they officially divorced in 1987.
Fifth times a charm! The Tales From the Crypt actress married her fifth and current husband Percy Gibson in February 2002 at Claridge’s Hotel in London. The film and television producer is 31 years younger than his wife.