Helen Mirren reveals new details about dating ex Liam Neeson

Helen Mirren has opened up with some new revelations about her decade-long romance with Liam Neeson.

“We weren’t meant to be like this, but we loved each other very, very much,” she told AARP Magazine of the Taken star. “I love him very much to this day. He’s such a great guy.”

Mirren, 77, and Neeson, 70, were a couple from 1980 to 1985 after meeting in the 1981 film Excalibur. While appearing on Inside the Actors Studio in 2012, Neeson told host James Lipton that Mirren was instrumental in getting him an agent. Speaking together on The Graham Norton Show in 2018, Mirren said, “We weren’t dating, we lived together for four years – we were a serious couple for a while. Lucky me!”

Neeson also said that when they were dating, they met Muhammad Ali, who was flirting with Mirren. “I think I should have been angry. But all I could think was, ‘Wow, Muhammad Ali is trying to pull my girl. How cool is that!’ ” he said.

The couple split because “it was difficult for him to be under my shadow,” Mirren told the New York Times. “I was known; I had the money…I felt like Liam was about time for him to come out from under my wing. He handled it with great elegance and grace. we loved each other It was hard to let go.”

Mirren has been married to 77-year-old director Taylor Hackford since 1997, while Neeson married the late Natasha Richardson in 1994.

Mirren is currently starring in 1923, a spin-off series of Yellowstone, which premieres December 18 on Paramount+, while Neeson has several action films in the pipeline including In the Land of Saints and Sinners and Thug “.

The Oscar-winner admitted she has a hobby that she’s not the best at, which she dragged Neeson into while the two were dating.

“I make clothes myself, very badly, and then I hardly wear them because they’re so awful,” she said. But I like the manufacturing process… I went through a stage of making men’s shirts. All my friends had to have a shirt made by me.”

This group includes her current husband, the late Peter O’Toole, and Neeson.

“Oddly enough, I made one for Liam,” she confessed.