Anthony Devlin
Dame Joan Collins claimed her first husband, actor Maxwell Reed, raped her on their first date and attempted to pimp her out to “old rich men” for as much as $13,500 (£10,000) a night.
The British actress, 88, recounted the assault in a BBC documentary on Saturday night, claiming the Northern Irish film star, who was 14 years her senior, had invited her over to his home and spiked her rum and coke. “In those days, my mother would have said I was taken advantage of,” Collins recalled. “Now, we call it date rape.’
Collins said Reed took her virginity and she ended up marrying him in 1952 “out of shame,” and over the course of their four-year marriage was subjected to a steady stream of abuse. The final straw came when Reed allegedly tried to pimp her out to a sheikh.
“We were in Les Ambassadeurs, a terribly chic nightclub in Mayfair,” she said. “Max had a habit of gravitating towards rich, elderly men, and I was starting to get a vague idea of what this was all about. Max told me, ‘He’ll pay you £10,000 for one night—and I can even watch.’ I looked at my handsome, loathsome husband and began to cry. ‘Never in a million years.’ I went home to Mummy.”
The couple divorced in 1956, and Reed died in 1974. Collins went on to marry four more times, tying the knot with actor Anthony Newley, American businessman Ron Kass, singer Peter Holm, and current husband movie producer Percy Gibson.