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Bella
- April 19th,
1992
Juliet
Mills about Maxwell Caulfield: "I'm
happy with my younger man"
Juliet Mills'
blissfully happy marriage to handsome actor Maxwell Caulfield proves
that love really can bridge the age gap.
My husband Maxwell Caulfield and I met in
New York in January 1980 when we were rehearsing for the play The
Elephant Man. He was playing the lead and I was cast in a supporting
role.
Despite the big age difference -- I was
38 and he was 20 -- Maxwell was everything I'd ever dreamt of in a man.
I thought he was extremely handsome and a brilliant actor. We spent
hours talking together and I soon discovered he was the soulmate I'd
been searching for for years.
Just because he was 18 years younger than
me didn't seem to be a good enough reason to look for problems. A
conditioned mind with all its rules and regulations can really screw
things up when your heart knows what's right for you.
Maxwell proposed to me in California a
few months after our first meeting. I'll never forget it. He'd left a
message at the house to meet him in Beverly Hills, on a quiet hilltop
overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was a warm May evening at sunset. He
was wearing a dinner jacket and had scattered hundreds of pink rose
petals over the ground. Then he got down on one knee and said:
"Will you be the love of my life for the rest of my life?"
I was speechless, but when I finally
managed to say 'yes', he opened a cage containing two white doves and
set them free. He'd also hired a Silver Phantom Rolls-Royce and had
booked a table at the best French restaurant in Los Angeles to
celebrate.
There was a bit of a rumble when we
announced our marriage. My sister Hayley, now 46, thought I was mad to
fall for a younger man. She's had to eat her words, though. We
introduced her to Maxwell's 31-year-old pop musician brother, Marcus
Maclaine, and they've been together for five years now.
When I told my father, Sir John Mills,
that I'd met the man of my dreams and that he happened to be younger
than me, he looked at me, saw that I was shining and radiant because I
was in love, and said: "Well, darling, age is irrelevant."
Sean, my son from my first marriage, is
only four years younger than Maxwell, but he could see how happy we were
together and that was good enough for him. He and Maxwell have become
very close and are always supportive of each other.
We couldn't get married until 2 December
1980 because although I'd already separated from my second husband, the
divorce hadn't come through.
I'm very aware Maxwell is a movie star
who's constantly working with beautiful young actresses. There are days
when I look at him as he goes off to work and think: "Oh my
goodness!" But it keeps me on my toes.
I often surprise him with romantic
candlelit dinners when he comes home.
I've never worried that Maxwell might go
off with a younger woman as he makes me feel loved. When he said,
"I'll love you for ever." I believed him.
I suppose I wouldn't be human, though, if
I didn't admit there are times when I scrutinise myself and think:
"Oh my God, I'm getting more lines and wrinkles!"
But Maxwell thinks I'm beautiful and that
my beauty comes from within. With him, I feel as young and desirable as
I did when we first met. He's such a romantic man.
Maxwell wanted to look after me right
from the start. He encourages me in everything I do in an almost
paternal way. I've never once felt I have a young man who's relying on
me.
Thankfully, in the last 10 years it has
become much more acceptable for older women to marry younger men. There
will always be jealous people who enjoy bitching about age differences
in marriage, but people seem to be less judgemental in America.
I wouldn't say I was particularly
courageous or brave to marry a younger man, just lucky.
Maxwell and I are blissfully happy
together and live on a beautiful avocado ranch in the foothills of Santa
Barbara, near Los Angeles.
I believe in reincarnation and Maxwell is
definitely the older soul. Physically he's younger but I never feel he's
giving me a younger slant on life -- I have that already. My father is
so young at heart, even at 84. He's been happily married to my mother
for 52 years!
I really do believe that if a
relationship is right for you, it makes no difference what age you are.
I'm radiantly happy with my younger man -- I've been very lucky.
By
Ann Steele |
