Dame Joan Collins was an "idiot" to marry Maxwell Reed.

The 90-year-old actress was allegedly raped by the actor on their first date but they went on to wed in May 1952, before splitting just seven months later and she's thankful she managed to "get rid" of him.

She told The Sunday Times magazine: “I used to say to the girls at school, ‘I’m going to marry him one day.’ What an idiot. I had the brains of this glass of water.

“But what the hell. I got rid of him.”

Joan's second husband was singer Anthony Newley - the father of her children Tara and Alexander - and while she's pleased their kids have inherited his "brilliance and magic", she acknowledged he "wasn't able" to be what she needed in a husband and father.

She said: “I realised that Anthony Newley was a genius and fascinating and I think I felt that he would be a really good father and my children would inherit some of his brilliance and magic. Which they did, I was happy to say, but he was flawed. He wasn’t able to be a good father or a good husband and he was absolutely bonkers about women.”

After a difficult divorce, the pair eventually retained a friendship and starred together in 'Tonight at 8.30' in 1991, before Joan was left distraight when Anthony died in 1999.

She recalled: “I was having lunch at Spago in Hollywood and I was called to the phone and I just burst into tears. “I was really, really upset.”

Joan's third husband was to Ron Kass in 1972, and though things were "almost perfect" until 1975, the relationship went sour and the actress - who had daughter Katyana with the music executive - was left penniless.

She said: “Ron, unfortunately, became the victim of drugs and that’s why I was so anti-drug,” she says, “but I won’t go any further than that because we have a daughter.”

Fourth husband Peter Holm was a one-hit wonder who she has lost touch with since they divorced in 1987 after two years of marriage.

Looking back on her past unions, the 'Royals' actress - who has been happily married to Percy Gibson since 2002 - thinks she was "stupid".

She reflected: “I must be stupid. I don’t know. I mean, nobody appeared to be like that at the beginning. Peter Holm was charming and funny. He used to serenade me with his guitar.”