Helen Mirren Opens Up About Marriage, Sex Symbol Status

Dame Helen Mirren has opened up in a new interview about the secret to her long-standing marriage to Taylor Hackford and her being a sex symbol at age 71.

Gracing the cover of the latest issue of AARP The Magazine, Mirren admitted that she never wanted to get married. But it all changed when she met her film director husband. She said she was 38 at the time when she tied the knot with Hackford.

Helen Mirren Opens Up in the December/January Issue of AARP The Magazine https://t.co/2cOgLqud3Z pic.twitter.com/HLdjIFUJA8

— VIMOOZ (@VIMOOZ) November 29, 2016

"We got married in the end because we realized that we were going to be together forever," Mirren said. "We got married, ultimately, for legal reasons more than anything else. Estate planning and other complicated things like that. And our families, we sensed, wanted us to be married." The actress explained that she had nothing against marriage. She went on to make an analogy between marriage and turnips. "(Marriage) just wasn't to my taste, like turnips. It took me a very long time to come around to acquiring the taste. I just had to meet the right turnip," she said.

Helen Mirren's secret to success. Follow @Movies4Grownups for #BTS coverage during its awards ceremony this Monday! pic.twitter.com/Axb2KuaGGd — AARP (@AARP) February 6, 2016

In the same interview, Mirren also opened up about being labeled a sex symbol at the age of 71, saying that it's a title she will take to her grave. She added that "being over 70" is the best thing about being over 70, and had cringed the thought of reaching that age when she was 45. "But you only have two options in life: die young or get old. There is nothing else," Mirren stressed.

Mirren's physique has often been the subject of discussion in the media for many decades. The Academy Award winner had shown it off in the film "Excalibur" (1981) while wearing form-fitting outfits, as well as going completely nude in the film "Calendar Girls" (2003), according to Us Weekly.

Watch a video of Mirren and Hackford below: