Dame Judi Dench, who played M in the James Bond series, said that she had planned to have a large family with her husband, actor Michael Williams, before his death from lung cancer in 2001.
The actor is known for a wide variety of roles, including Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love (1998), for which she won an Oscars, and the title characters in Philomena (2003), and Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown (1997), for which she was Oscar-nominated.
She told the Sunday Times: “Michael and I said, ‘we’re going to have six children’. “We had one, beautiful Finty (Williams, 52, also an actor), and we didn’t have the other five, it just didn’t happen. I worked a lot. I suppose you don’t stop to consider really.”
Dame Judi, who turns 90 next week, could not pick a favorite moment from her 70-year career, adding she was “lucky to be able to say that.”
Asked what the next decade looks like for her, she noted: “Am I going to be 100? Well, I hope so. That would be nice. I’ll try and make 100.”
“I think you’re lucky to be 90, my two great, great friends, Barbara Leigh-Hunt and Dame Maggie Smith, have just dropped off the bough in the last four weeks or so and that’s not good.
“I’m able to at least get from a to b and walk about and, golly, I’ve got a great deal to be grateful for.”
She told the newspaper she had more projects in the pipeline despite deteriorating eyesight and hearing.
The actress said she is “hopeless at my own company” and added that she spends a large amount of her time chatting to her partner, conservationist David Mills, 81, and parrot Sweetie, who has some choice words for her.
Dame Judi said: “We had a long chat just now. You shouldn’t ask what she says.”
“She listens to the radio. My God, she’s very funny. Everybody should have a parrot, or a myna bird. Their voices are absolutely incredible.”
Judi’s daughter and grandson Sam, 27, were planning a surprise for her birthday, Bond 007 producer Barbara Broccoli was taking her for lunch at The Ivy.
