Dame Judi Dench reveals pet parrot calls her by rude nickname

Dame Judi Dench is one of Britain’s most revered acting talents – but that doesn’t stop her parrot from showering her with insults.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, the stage and screen icon revealed that her pet, an African grey parrot named Sweetie, calls her a “slut” and a “slag”.

“We had a long chat just now,” Dench told the paper. “You shouldn’t ask what she says. She says: ‘You’re a slut’, ‘you’re a slag.’”

“She has said ‘Boris Johnson’ but she didn’t get that from me,” the 89-year-old said. “She listens to the radio. My God, she’s funny though. She’s very, very funny.”

The Skyfall star added that “everybody should have a parrot, or a myna bird” because “their voices are absolutely incredible”.

Dench has previously revealed that the foul-mouthed Sweetie, who the actor received as a present during the coronavirus pandemic, has also insulted her housekeeper and her grandson’s girlfriend.

In an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Dench recounted how she had tried and failed to teach the bird to learn to recite Shakespeare. Speaking to Louis Theroux during an interview special, she revealed that she now “wouldn’t be without [Sweetie] for the world”.

Dench will turn 90 later this month, and told The Sunday Times that she is trying not to think too much about the milestone birthday.

“It’s just that you get a bit nervous when everybody says 90,” she explained. “I don’t want to think of 90 much, I’m going to think about [turning] 29.”

The Oscar winner said that she felt “lucky” to be entering her nineties, after the recent deaths of her two “great, great friends”, actors Maggie Smith and Barbara Leigh-Hunt.

“I’m able to at least get from A to B and walk about and, golly, I’ve got a great deal to be grateful for,” she said.