Married at 52, Helen Mirren Shares Her and Taylor’s Secret to Their Everlasting Love

In the 1960s, the average age women got married was 20 years old. Today, this number has gone up to 28. Actress Helen Mirren got married when she was 52 years old and was always ahead of her time. She’s been sharing her life with her husband Taylor for almost 4 decades and we wanted to find out about their history and how they’ve made it work for so long.

Bright Side loves to spread positive stories and Helen Mirren’s is one that is worth to be shared with you — it proves once again that it’s never too late to find love in life.

Helen Mirren had wanted to become an actress since she was 13 years old.

Helen Mirren is a versatile and highly-skilled actress, most known for her role in the police-drama Prime Suspect and for her portrayal of Elizabeth II in the biopic The Queen. She is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the US and the UK.

Helen Mirren was born in 1945, in London. At age 18, she joined Britain’s National Youth Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company a year later. While she was a part of multiple theatre productions, her movie career started to unfold in her early 20s.

Her first feature film, Age of Consent, was not a success, but it served as her stepping stone toward her career as we now know it. Ever since the 1960s, Helen Mirren has been in more than 70 movies and received more than 20 awards for her outstanding work.

Meeting Taylor Hackford wasn’t love at first sight.

Helen had 3 or 4 lovers in her life and was serially monogamous, up until one point. Helen Mirren and film director Taylor Hackford met after her breakthrough role in the 1980s film The Long Good Friday. He later invited Helen to audition for the movie he was directing, White Nights, in 1986.

Helen was 38 years old at the time she met Taylor. When asked if he is the love of her life, the actress responded, “I don’t have much life left, do I? So, I hope he’s the love of my life.” “The great thing about finding a partnership later on [in life] is that you recognize it as such,” she said. “You recognize the partnership level of this relationship as much as the love and the lust and all the rest of it.”

After 11 years of dating, they officially became a couple and finally tied the knot in 1997. They got married because, in the end, they realized they were going to be together forever — legal reasons played an important part in this decision too. Helen shared, “I always said I have nothing against marriage, it just wasn’t to my taste, like turnips. It took me a very long time to come round to acquiring the taste. I just had to meet the right turnip.”

Helen and Taylor prove you don’t have to believe in romance to make a marriage work.

The actress stated that they are not romantic with each other and they often forget to get each other birthday presents. Instead of lavishing each other with gifts, they believe being considerate with each other every day is more important.

Helen Mirren was never the woman who wanted to wear “the wedding dress.” “As an actor, you don’t need that because you’ve worn the dress. You’ve stood in the spotlight. You’ve had everyone looking at you. And on top of that, for a long time, I just didn’t see the point of marriage.”

The secret to making their partnership work, according to Helen, is the fact that, because of their work, they are always traveling. “My theory has always been that this is why we’re still together: because we’ve spent so much time apart, we’re always pleased to see each other.”

Helen Mirren and her husband are child-free.

Taylor Hackford has 2 sons from his previous marriages — Rio and Alexander — so Helen can proudly call herself a step-mom. “I do love children and I’ve got family, and Taylor has children that I’m involved with — and with great pleasure — but it’s just not for me.”

“I never felt the need for a child. Motherhood holds no interest for me,” the actress stated. It’s not because she doesn’t love children — she does — but she never wanted to have them. “I really tried to want it at one point. But I never convinced myself. There are far too many people in the world. It’s my contribution to ecology. ”

“I have never had a moment of regret about not having children. Well, I lie. When I watched the movie, Parenthood, I sobbed for about 20 minutes, I sobbed for the loss of the chance at parenthood and the fact that I never experienced it.” However, she confirmed she was soon quite relieved about not having children. “Then I got over it and I was happy again.”

What’s your and your partners’ secret to making a marriage work? If you could start your marriage all over, what would you have done differently? Let us know in the comments.