(Mainly a Susan George article)
SUSAN GEORGE is in love again .., but this time it’s not just a flight of fancy. Her boyfriends, you tend to think, have outnumbered her movies.
There was a five-year, scorching romance with American singer Jack Jones – “When it ended,” she said, “I was heartbroken.”
Then there were secret late-night meetings with Prince Charles in his bachelor days.
Dalliances followed with Rod Stewart, George Best and tennis ace Jimmy Connors. And love, “forever, this time”, for four years with former casino manager, Derek Webster.
The new man in her life is tall, tanned and handsome Simon MacCorkindale, who split with his wife, actress Fiona Fullerton, when he went to work in Hollywood two years ago.
Susan says: “We have been together since last summer, but we were so anxious not to hurt anyone that we have tried to keep our relationship secret.”
At the same time, Susan was anxiously trying to protect her relationship with Webster’s children from a former marriage, and to remain friends with him.
“I am just so terrified that people will say I left him because he wasn’t as successful as I am,” she says. “But it wasn’t like that at all.
“I was attracted to him from the start. I tried to fight against it – to tell myself that I was imagining things, but then I realised that he felt the same way, and you can’t fight love.
“I have always let my heart rule my head, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. With Simon, I feel totally happy and totally fulfilled. Frankly, I just can’t imagine living without him.”
While Simon has yet to consolidate his career internationally, Susan’s career has hit a new high with what one critic describes as her “best role ever”, starring with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in The Jigsaw Man.
“At last I feel I am really getting somewhere,” says 32-year-old Susan, “I think I’ve lost the terrible ‘starlet’ image, and at last I am being taken seriously as an actress.
“Fortunately, Simon is man enough and generous enough to be delighted for me, and his turn will come. I have no doubts about that. What I would really love is for us to be able to make a film together.”
But will Susan and Simon marry? Susan says: “One thing that life has taught me is never to take happiness for granted. Of course I want to marry and have children, but when I do, I want it to be for keeps.
“I think Simon and I still need a bit more time- as friends and as lovers – before we start thinking of a permanent commitment.
“On the other hand,” she added, “I can’t imagine life without him.”
And, says Simon, “I can’t imagine mine without her.”