‘I was a bad, naughty person really’: Lesley-Anne Down relives her VERY tumultuous love life in the 1980s, surviving breast cancer and ‘hellish’ trolls

She’s been one of the world’s most successful and beautiful actresses for decades, but Lesley-Anne Down is finally pulling the curtain down on her career at the age of 70. Yet the star of TV shows including Dallas, Sunset Beach, The Bold And The Beautiful and Upstairs, Downstairs, and films such as The Pink Panther Strikes Again, is going out on a high.

In what’s likely to be her last screen appearance, Lesley-Anne plays Margaret Thatcher in Reagan, the upcoming biopic of the former US President, who is played by Dennis Quaid. ‘I’m excited for everyone involved, especially Dennis, who stands an insanely good chance of winning an Oscar,’ she says.

She admits she was shocked at landing the role. ‘To begin with my aim was not to be a laughing stock because I’m so not Margaret Thatcher. My next aim was to make her real, because she’s easy to make fun of like they did in Spitting Image,’ says Lesley-Anne, who took tips from Steve Nallon, the voice of Mrs T on that show.

‘I tried to make her tangible, not a caricature. If you mention Mrs Thatcher to younger people they go, “Who?”, so I wanted to pander to those who don’t know who she is or that time and place. I actually rewrote my scenes because the information in them was only for people who really knew the history. They were grateful and they did it my way.

‘I’m happy I’m part of this film, but it’s not like it’s going to change my life or career. From the age of about 14 it was constant clothes, shoes, make-up, hair and jewellery and all the rest. I don’t really work any more because I no longer want to put myself in a situation where other people are telling me what to do.’

She recently turned down a part in The Panic, a movie her American cinematographer husband Don FauntLeRoy is working on. ‘They wanted me to go up to Buffalo in New York for that but I thought, “Fudge, it’s so much work!” So I stayed home and watered the garden instead.’

She’s casually dressed today in a pink T-shirt, white shorts and next to no make-up, at the home in Marietta, Georgia, she shares with Don. They moved here four years ago from Malibu, quite a contrast from her south London upbringing with caretaker father Percy and mother Isabella.

‘Although we were poor we went to Butlin’s for our holidays. Mum made me an outfit and I won Best Costume. I won a talent contest singing I Only Want To Be With You, and the Miss Ribena Picture Of Health. The other mothers hated my mother because I won everything. When I saw an advert in a newspaper saying “child model wanted” I applied. I got an agent, went from modelling to dancing and then acting, quit school and didn’t look back.’

She was first seen on screen in the 1969 film The Smashing Bird I Used To Know, and her career has seen her share the screen with a host of co-stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Sean Connery, but she says she never enjoyed acting. ‘Jobs happened and I kept going, but was I ever comfortable? No. I’m untrained and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, I just opened my mouth and talked. Nobody ever employed me for my brain.’

Knowing what she does now, what she would say to her younger self if she could go back? ‘I’d say, “Don’t be so stupid. Be stronger. Don’t do what other people want you to do.” Back then if you accepted a job you were totally at their beck and call. I hated that. I shouldn’t have been in this industry, I should have been something else, like a missionary. I was hugely religious as a child. If I could have chosen a different life I probably would have. Just talking about my life, happiness, joie de vivre, I would have been happier not do­ing what I did.

‘I’ve never liked watching myself. In the old days they’d get rushes [unedited footage] at lunchtime and everyone would go in and watch, but I never did, I couldn’t bear it. And I’ve never felt beautiful, or looked in a mirror and thought that.’

But plenty of men did. ‘It was not pleasant,’ she says. ‘When it came to the rich and famous it was more than pestering. There was no protection then. I did feel powerful. I was always with somebody then met someone else and moved on. A bad, naughty person really.’

Ending a ten-year relationship with Bruce Robinson, the writer of Withnail & I, she wed Argentinian filmmaker Enrique Gabriel in 1980. The marriage lasted 18 months. In 1982 she married William Friedkin, late director of The French Connection and The Exorcist. They had a son, Jack, in 1982 and got divorced in 1985.

‘I’d grown out of the relationship with Bruce,’ she says. ‘Enrique was lovely but I should never have married him. I did that to completely separate from Bruce. William was a genius director but a lunatic psychopath. An abusive, horrible man. Evil.’

She met Don in 1984 when they were working on the hit mini-series North And South. They tied the knot in 1986 and their son George was born in 1998. ‘He’s a very good man,’ says Lesley-Anne, or LA as she was known to her pals when she lived in Los Angeles for 40 years. ‘We’ve been very “there” for one another.’

She says she felt ‘very, very, very grateful’ when she turned 70 back in March, partly because at 54 she had a ‘brutal’ battle with breast cancer. ‘I ended up having a double mastectomy because I wanted it, not because I needed it. They didn’t want me to have it, but I’m 1,000 per cent glad I did because it greatly reduced the chances of it coming back. Of course it scared me. I remember praying a lot in the middle of the night while Don was sleeping. I prayed for enough life to be given to me to see George become an adult.’

Six months later, reckoning she looked tired and unhappy, Lesley-Anne underwent her first facelift, and to this day she has Botox three times a year and facials every three weeks. ‘I remember reading that beautiful women find ageing a lot harder than people who were never considered to be super-duper. I can’t say I feel that way. Getting old doesn’t affect me,’ she says. ‘I take care of myself and I look happy, and if you look happy that’s all you can ask for.’

There is a Facebook page devoted to Lesley-Anne, mainly comprising photos from her prime. And she still gets ‘a pile a week’ of fan mail from around the world. ‘I have to be honest, I don’t read it. I haven’t got the energy or time, though I appreciate it and I send them back a photo which is usually what they want. Any I receive with naked pictures I rip up and bin, then send them one of my face!’

Lesley-Anne remains active on X (Twitter), often discussing the current American presidential candidates. Following the death of her North And South co-star Kirstie Alley in December 2022 from colon cancer at the age of 71, Lesley-Anne defended her against online trolling. ‘Kirstie was a very strong and political person, and the Left think of people who are not Left as evil. To do it to people who are alive is bad enough, but to do it to people who have passed away is hellish.’

Yet she adds of Alley, ‘We were never really friends, even when we did North And South. I never really had friends in the industry. Don is my one friend in the industry.’

Now she has more time on her hands, Lesley-Anne is contemplating writing her memoirs, although the way she’d like people to remember her is simple. ‘As being kind, and for them to be happy that they knew me.’

And as an actress? ‘I don’t give a flying you know what!’

Reagan is coming to cinemas soon