For more than seven decades, Joan Collins has lived the kind of life that sometimes seemed even more dramatic than Dynasty.
There were Hollywood premieres, international fame, five marriages and romances with some of the most famous men of her generation.
Now 93, Collins can look back on all of it with the confidence of a woman who survived Hollywood on her own terms.
And among the many men who passed through her extraordinary life, four relationships tell very different parts of her story.
Warren Beatty — The Young Hollywood Romance
Long before Dynasty made Collins a television icon, there was Warren Beatty.
They began their romance around 1959, when Beatty was still a young actor on his way to becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Their relationship became serious enough that they were engaged.
Collins has spoken candidly about that period of her life, including becoming pregnant and having an abortion while she and Beatty were both pursuing their careers.
Years later, Collins admitted that she believed she had been in love with him.
Their relationship didn’t last, but the memories certainly did.
Decades later, Collins recalled unexpectedly seeing Beatty with his wife, Annette Bening. According to Collins, Beatty told her husband Percy Gibson:
“I still love this woman.”
Collins’ reaction?
She called the remark “ridiculous.”
Anthony Newley — Love, Marriage and Two Children
Then came Anthony Newley.
The enormously talented British actor, singer and songwriter became Collins’ second husband in 1963.
Their marriage produced two children, Tara and Alexander.
For Collins, that alone makes the relationship impossible to dismiss as simply another failed Hollywood marriage.
She has made clear that she doesn’t regret marrying Newley.
There was genuine love between them.
But there was also heartbreak.
Their marriage eventually collapsed amid Newley’s infidelities, and Collins later described discovering just how much of his private behavior had found its way into his work.
They divorced, but Newley remained an important part of Collins’ life story until his death in 1999.
Ron Kass — The Marriage She Wanted to Save
Collins married music executive Ron Kass in 1972.
Kass had been a major figure in the music business, serving as an executive at the Beatles’ Apple Records.
Together they had Collins’ third child, Katyana.
For a time, Collins believed she had found the stable family life she wanted.
She later remembered Kass as someone who could match her extraordinary energy.
But the marriage eventually became overwhelmed by his problems with drugs.
Collins has said she genuinely wanted both her marriage to Kass and her earlier marriage to Newley to succeed.
She doesn’t regret either relationship because they gave her something far more important than Hollywood glamour:
her children.
Percy Gibson — The Man Who Changed the Ending
After four marriages, Collins wasn’t looking to walk down the aisle again.
Then she met Percy Gibson.
They met while working together in theater around 2000.
Unlike the whirlwind Hollywood romances of her younger years, this relationship developed gradually.
They became friends.
They spent time together.
They wrote love letters.
And eventually, Collins realized something was different.
Despite a 32-year age difference, they married in 2002.
More than two decades later, they’re still together.
When Collins was once asked to rank her husbands, she didn’t hesitate.
“Percy by far the best, absolutely!”
She has described him as kind, grounded and loving.
And perhaps the most revealing thing Collins has said about him came years into their marriage.
She admitted that when she looked across a room and saw Percy, her heart still skipped.
That’s quite a statement from a woman who had already experienced more than half a century of romance, marriage and heartbreak before finding him.
At 93, Joan Collins doesn’t pretend every chapter of her romantic life was perfect.
Far from it.
She’s been brutally candid about her mistakes, disappointments and the relationships she wishes had turned out differently.
But Warren Beatty, Anthony Newley, Ron Kass and Percy Gibson each represent a very different Joan Collins.
Beatty was the glamorous young Hollywood romance.
Newley became the father of two of her children.
Kass represented another attempt to build the family life she wanted.
And Percy became something Collins may once have thought she’d never find again:
a lasting marriage.
After all the Hollywood drama, perhaps that’s the biggest surprise of Joan Collins’ love story.
The woman who became famous playing one of television’s most formidable women ultimately found her happiest relationship when she was already in her late 60s.
And more than 24 years later, they’re still together.