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Dame Joan Collins Loose Women TV show, London, UK© Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock

Everything Joan Collins, 90, has said about her previous marriages

The iconic actress is now happily married to Percy Gibson

Francesca Shillcock
Senior Features Writer
Updated: November 22, 2023
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Dame Joan Collins is an adored face on the silver screen thanks to her incredible Hollywood career which began way back in the early 1950s. The star, 90, has won multiple accolades for her talent including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and she's considered one of the last remaining stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

So it's no wonder that Joan has been a global icon for decades now. But Joan's personal life has also been the centre of interest and fascination for her fans. The actress is now happily married to her husband of 21 years, Percy Gibson, but Joan admitted that she didn't have the easiest route to finding love.

WATCH: Joan Collins and Elizabeth Hurley enjoy fun lunch date in St Tropez

Here's everything Dame Joan Collins has said about her ex-husbands and love life history over the years…

Joan hasn't shied away from detailing her past marriages including the trauma she faced at the hands of her first husband, Maxwell Reed, who she married in 1952. In one of her books, Joan bravely wrote about how she was drugged and assaulted by Maxwell, who later died in 1974. "And what he had given me was a drug.

"He had drugged my drink," she wrote. "It was what is called in those days a Mickey Finn. Which I think today would be Rohypnol. It felt so horrible. That I... that I'd done this thing." Joan and Maxwell went on to divorce in 1956 and, a few years later, she would marry performer Anthony Newley.

MORE: Joan Collins recalls moment she forgot to curtsy to Princess Kate in front of Louis and Charlotte

MORE: Joan Collins, 90, is a purple princess in unconventional mermaid wedding dress with Percy Gibson, 58

Actress Joan Collins on the day of her wedding to husband actor Maxwell Reed.(Photo by Ron Case/Getty Images)© Ron Case
Actress Joan Collins on the day of her wedding to husband actor Maxwell Reed.(Photo by Ron Case/Getty Images)

Joan and Anthony welcomed two children together, Tara and Alexander, and Joan previously said how her children had inherited their father's talent. She previously told the Sunday Times Magazine: "I realised that Anthony Newley was genius and fascinating. 

"I think I felt that he would be a really good father and my children would inherit some of his brilliance and magic, which they did, I was happy to say, but he was flawed. He wasn't able to be a good father or a good husband and he was absolutely bonkers about women."

Joan claims that Anthony had affairs with "about 72 women" during their marriage© Getty
Joan claims that Anthony had affairs with "about 72 women" during their marriage

When Anthony would later pass away in 1999, the former husband and wife had by that point formed a friendship and his death left Joan "distraught."

After Joan and Anthony divorced in 1971, Joan then married Ronald S. Krass in 1972 – with whom she welcomed a daughter, Katyana. Joan's daughter was involved in a near-fatal car accident in 1980 when she was eight years old. The mother-of-three recalled the horrific time in her memoir as the "worst thing that ever happened."

Joan Collins pictured with her third husband, American businessman Ron Kass© Express
Joan Collins pictured with her third husband, American businessman Ron Kass

She wrote: "She was knocked down by a car and sustained very serious brain injuries and I was told that she was going to die. She was in a coma for a very long time." Thankfully, Katyana recovered but it put a strain on the relationship, with Joan later explaining that Ron had suffered from drug addiction. Ron and Joan divorced in 1983.

Joan would then marry Peter Holm in 1985 but the union was short-lived and they divorced in 1987. According to MailOnline, the pair met in the summer of 1983 before her divorce from Ron was finalised and while they were together, the couple even met Princess Diana at a charity dinner.

Joan Collins and Husband Peter Holm during Gala Dinner Tribute to Aaron Spelling - October 20,1985© Ron Galella, Ltd.
Joan Collins and Husband Peter Holm during Gala Dinner Tribute to Aaron Spelling - October 20,1985

But the relationship was tempestuous throughout, according to the Joan Collins biography written by Graham Lord. Although it was a bitter end, Joan did previously say of her former husband: "Peter Holm was charming and funny. He used to serenade me with the guitar."

Meanwhile, after four marriages, Joan was insistent that she would not marry again, but that would all change when she met theatre producer Percy Gibson in 2000. Two years later, they would marry.

In her memoir, The World According to Joan, she wrote: "I kissed a lot of frogs before I found my prince. For those women who are looking for a life partner, that old saying that men are like buses and 'if you wait long enough the right one will come along' is true for a reason."

Joan Collins and Percy Gibson at HELLO! Inspiration Awards© David M. Benett
Joan Collins and Percy Gibson at HELLO! Inspiration Awards

In 2015, Joan and Percy opened up to HELLO! explaining how happy they are. "It is my fifth marriage, and my happiest, and last," she said. "Percy is wonderful, he's my soul mate. That doesn't mean we don't bicker but we are very understanding of each other."

Percy, meanwhile, added further in the same interview: "People are entitled to their opinion but it's good to prove them wrong. I've certainly never been happier and I hope that I make Joan happy because she definitely deserves that." 

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