Harriet Walter says marrying later in life is 'exactly when you want to be married'
Harriet Walter highly recommends tying the knot in later life, as she said she has "the best time" in her marriage to actor Guy Paul.
The Killing Eve star, 74, married Paul, 75, in 2011 when they were both in their 60s. In a new interview with The Times, Walter said: “It’s exactly when you want to be married.
"When you want to do all sorts of things, and you’ve got a companion to travel with and hang out, and you don’t have these idealised, impossible visions of how people should be," she added, explaining why she is an advocate of late marriage.
However, the road to romance wasn’t smooth, Walter admitted. "It’s very difficult to embark on a love affair in later life," she said. "When you’re young, that’s what everything’s aimed at. Music culture, party culture, club culture. It’s all about getting a partner.
"Whereas when you’re older, it’s much harder to see the signals. You develop links as a friend and think, 'Is this going to turn into something else?'"
The Succession star also reflected on her dating history, and found that dating people who weren’t actors - who she referred to as "civilians" - as well as high-achieving men did not work out for her.
Non-actors "don’t really get that work is play, and play is work", she said, recalling a previous relationships. "One guy said, 'Can I see you next weekend?' and I said, 'No, I’m working'. He said, 'Oh, poor you'. And I thought, 'Oh, he doesn’t understand. This is what I like to do'."
As for the latter, Walter said: "You can’t have two ambitious people in a marriage, I don’t think. That doesn’t work in the end."
Before she met Paul, Walter was in a long-term relationship with Peter Blythe, who was 16 years older than her. The pair had planned to marry, but Blythe died of lung cancer in 2004.
She opened up to the Guardian about her grief in a 2009 interview and said she underwent bereavement counselling following Blythe’s death.
"I also have quite a few friends who have lost partners and talking to them was good," she continued. "I find that nobody else quite understands.
"Otherwise there’s a certain part of you that says: while you mustn’t block it out, you must also get on. I went back to work three months after Peter died. It was very important to give myself a structure."
Read more about love in later life:
Midlife dating tips as viewers praise My Mum Your Dad: 'Truly heartwarming' (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)
How middle-age Brits look for love as they believe in 'chance encounters' (NottinghamshireLive, 3-min read)
"I Still Think Of Her Daily": Older Adults Are Sharing If They Still Have Feelings For "The One Who Got Away" (BuzzFeed, 11-min read)
