Helen Mirren Says She Made 1 Thing for All Her Boyfriends, Including Liam Neeson
Helen Mirren and Liam Neeson are two of the most beloved actors today. The pair have enjoyed long careers independent of one another, and although they found love with their significant others, the two dated for half a decade. Mirren said she made one thing for all her boyfriends, including Neeson.
A glimpse of Helen Mirren’s career and dating life
Mirren’s acting career began on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late ’60s. She made a few appearances in movies at the time with some of her earliest works, including Midsummer Night’s Dream, Caligula, and Age of Consent. However, it wasn’t until the ’80s that she found success in the industry.
Making her breakthrough in The Long Friday, the actor appeared in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, 2010, and more. Her roles in The Madness of King George, Gosford Park, and The Last Station earned her Oscar nominations.
Mirren has since appeared in The Debt, Hitchcock, Woman In Gold, Eye In The Sky, Red, and its sequel and has been a major fixture in the Fast & Furious franchise. The 77-year-old actor is also the only one to play both of the regnant Elizabeths on screen with her roles in Elizabeth I and The Queen.
Mirren’s professional life usually overshadows her personal life, and not much about her makes it to the tabloids. However, she famously had a live-in relationship with Taken star Liam Neeson for five years. The pair met on the set of the 1981 movie Excalibur and immediately began a relationship.
Neeson and Mirren dated for five years, eventually parting ways in 1985. Mirren met her current husband, Taylor Hackford, a year after her breakup with Neeson. She and the director dated for 11 years, tying the knot in 1997. Mirren is rumored to have had a brief fling with stage actor Peter O’Toole before her romance with Neeson.
The actor made “very bad shirts” for everyone she dated
Mirren values the people she has been in a relationship with, and to this day, she speaks very fondly of Neeson and their relationship. In an interview with AARP, the F9 actor revealed that she enjoys making clothes for everyone she’s dated in the past, perhaps as a sign of love.
“I make clothes myself, extremely badly, and then I hardly ever wear them because they’re so awful,” Mirren admitted to the outlet. “I like the process of making them,” she said. The star told the publication she went through “a phase of making men’s shirts.”
“All my boyfriends had to have a shirt made by me,” Mirren said, confirming that she made shirts for O’Toole and her husband, Hackford. When the interviewer asked if she ever made one for Neeson, Mirren said, “I did make one for Liam, oddly enough.” The star joked that she technically owns a line of “very bad shirts” out there.
Helen Mirren helped Liam Neeson get his start in acting
When Mirren and Neeson began dating, she was the star of the relationship with an already established career and star power. When they began living together, Mirren encouraged Neeson to pursue acting and helped him hone his craft.
According to InStyle, the Hobbs & Shaw actor asked Neeson to move to London and helped him secure an agent, but the Schindler’s List star continued to be under her shadow. Ultimately, the pair decided their relationship had hit its stride and parted ways. Neeson went on to find success in the mid- ’90s, becoming the beloved star we all know and love.
