Dame Judi Dench has revealed that she believes that the older generation should still enjoy a healthy sex life, encouraging her fellow octogenarians to embrace their desires.
She was speaking ahead of the release of her new film Victoria and Abdul, which looks at the relationship of the widowed Queen Victoria with her younger Indian cleark, Abdul Karim. In the interview with Radio Times, Dench discusses how the film explores intimacy and desire in the old, as well as in the young.
'Well, of course, you still feel desire,' she said. 'Does that ever go? To the older reader, I would say: 'Don’t give up''
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The relationship between Queen Victoria and Karim was a controversial one at the time, with some of her friends and family unhappy that she was breaching the strict social hierarchies of the era. The film details how she became besotted with the 24-year-old, who was employed to teach her Urdu (this was, after all, at the height of the British Empire).
While there has never been any suggestion that their relationship became sexual (Karim was married) her private diaries have revealed that their friendship was a close one, and that they did discuss intimate parts of their lives.
Dench herself has recently embarked on a new relationship, following death of her husband Michael Williams in 2001. She is now dating David Mills, and revealed to Good Housekeeping that it had given her a new sense of purpose.
'One hot night during the summer we swam and had a glass of champagne in the garden and I said: ‘This is so fantastic’. I get overexcited about things. I love having a laugh,' she said.
The award-winning actress's comments about embracing your sexuality in later life echo recent findings that show that three quarters of men and women between the ages of 75 and 85 believe the key to a successful relationship was good sex.
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