Dame Helen Mirren is “very proud and delighted” to know that she has “won” everything she has in her life, because when she was growing up she did not even have a washing machine.

The 75-year-old actress insisted she didn’t grow up in a well-to-do household and her parents had always told her that she had to be “financially independent” when she grew up.

And having become one of the most famous actresses in the world, Helen is proud to say that she took her parents’ advice.

She said, “Everything I’ve got I’ve earned. I am not from a working class situation, but certainly from a financially poor situation.

“We didn’t have a TV when I was young, or a washing machine or a car, but the only thing my parents taught me – and that was very important to me as a woman – was” You have to become financially independent “.

“When I became an actress, it was very important for me to have financial security, and I have always worked. And now I am financially independent, and I did it myself. No one helped me. I take great pride and pleasure in it.

The “Good Liar” star is also grateful for having a “loyal and understanding” husband in Taylor Hackford, whom she married in 1997.

Helen says she “admires” her spouse and thinks they have the “necessary combination” of admiration and love that keeps their marriage strong.

She explained, “I have the incredible advantage in my life of having a husband who is both loyal and understanding and in response, I also return my loyalty and understanding to him. We could not get married without it.

“I also admire my husband, which is essential. I’m not going to sit there and say, ‘Oh, honey, you’re so wonderful. You are so wonderful.

What intelligence on your part and blah blah blah ‘. but I think admiration and love are a necessary combination for a marriage. And I greatly admire my husband.

Helen and Taylor have spent the entire COVID-19 pandemic together in isolation at their home, and the “Queen” actress couldn’t have been happier.

Speaking to Yours magazine, she said: “For the first time my husband and I spent time together doing things like sitting down to dinner every night. Usually we are in different parts of the world for the night. job.