Actress Dame Helen Mirren has said that her boyfriends have taught her a ‘lot of things’ about life.

The 64-year-old actress has previously had some famous liaisons with stars such as Liam Neeson and Nicol Williamson and is now married to the US director Taylor Hackford.

She told the UK’s Weekend magazine: “I’ve learned a lot of things from boyfriends in my life. I had one boyfriend who loved music - I’m very unmusical myself - so all my information about music comes from him.

“I had another who loved boxing. He taught me all about it, and now I love it too. I love learning new things.

“That’s one thing I don’t want to change as I get older, and I think if we are not careful we can get a little bit single-minded or bigoted, or think we know it all.

“We can start cutting things off, and I don’t want that to happen to me.”