Helen Mirren, 80, Married in Her 50s and Chose Not to Have Children: Here’s What She’s Said About Her Bold Choices
The British screen icon dated Liam Neeson before he was famous and has been married to director Taylor Hackford for 28 years
Helen Mirren’s name has long been synonymous with aging gracefully, and the stunning British star, who turned 80 earlier this year, is refreshingly candid about the joys of getting older, telling Allure, “F–k it, I’m alive and I’m working and I can drink a glass of wine and I can wear makeup and I can listen to music and I can watch a beautiful sunset and I can go to the theater and I can watch a movie and I can binge Netflix and I can live life. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Mirren’s positivity about being an older woman still feels all too rare, but the award-winning actress has long delighted in defying conventions in both her personal and professional life. Mirren dated Liam Neeson before marrying director Taylor Hackford in 1997, and she’s happily child-free. Keep reading to learn about her relationships and the powerful things she’s said about the life choices she’s made.
Helen Mirren and Liam Neeson’s ’80s romance
Helen Mirren has largely kept her personal life private, coyly saying, “I’ve had probably three or four serious lovers. I was serially monogamous until I met my husband. And now I’m just monogamous.” One of these lovers was none other than Liam Neeson.
Mirren and Neeson met on the set of the 1981 medieval epic Excalibur. At the time, Neeson was just starting out, and Mirren, who had already been acting for over a decade, helped him get an agent. Neeson has credited Mirren with helping him take his career to the next level, and he later said, “Helen is a remarkable woman, a remarkable actress. I should be so lucky and be honored to have spent three or four years with that lady. She’s really something else.”
While Mirren and Neeson’s relationship didn’t last, the stars have maintained positive feelings for one another, and this year, she told The New York Times, “I will love Liam until the day I die.”
Helen Mirren’s 28-year marriage to Taylor Hackford
Helen Mirren met director Taylor Hackford during the making of his 1985 film White Nights, and they started dating the next year. After more than a decade together, they married in 1997.
In 2010, Mirren starred in Hackford’s movie Love Ranch, but she told People, “I don’t really like collaborating with Taylor, quite honestly. I love watching him work. I love being with him as he’s planning, as he’s developing, as he’s filming. But I want my work to be separate from him.” In the interview, Mirren said that setting boundaries was key to a lasting marriage, stating, “I love having him by my side when he is by my side. And I love being on my own when I’m on my own. And he allows that. And likewise, I allow him.”
Mirren has said that during her nearly 30 years with Hackford, she’s had the feeling that “You’re constantly discovering, learning about the person you love, who suddenly, completely surprises you. You find depths of courage or patience or generosity or that you just didn’t know were there.” The actress had long been skeptical about marriage, and she was 40 when she met her future husband and 52 when they tied the knot, and admitted that had she met him earlier in life, things probably wouldn’t have worked out. Clearly, Mirren has found beauty in coming to marriage from a place of self-knowledge and maturity, and she sees the joy in evolving alongside her longtime love.
Helen Mirren on choosing to be child-free
While Helen Mirren is stepmother to Taylor Hackford’s two sons from his previous marriages, Rio (who sadly died at 51 in 2022) and Alexander, she doesn’t have any biological children of her own.
Mirren has discussed her choice to be child-free with a forthrightness similar to how she approaches aging. As she told AARP, “I never felt the need for a child and I never felt the loss of it. I’d always put my work before anything”—and she has over 100 film credits to prove it!
Asked if she ever felt regret about not having children, Mirren said, “I love children, they are so funny and so sweet, but I never wanted my own. I have never had a moment of regret about not having children. Well, I lie. When I watched the movie Parenthood, I sobbed for about 20 minutes . . . Then I got over it and I was happy again.”
Mirren has even gone so far as to say that she has “no maternal instincts whatsoever”—a statement that feels pretty bold, particularly coming from a woman who has played the Queen of England!—and we love that whether the subject is aging, marriage or motherhood, the star has always spoken her mind.
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