Joan Collins, 86, jokes about outliving her younger husband Percy Gibson, 55

Joan Collins has declared she’d ‘settle’ at living til she’s 100 – and has brushed off the age difference between her and husband Percy Gibson.

The 86-year-old star married Percy, 55, in 2002, and said in a new interview that ‘people make too much fuss about age, which is just a number.’

Speaking to The Mirror, Joan said: ‘I think there’s a big difference between biological age and the age you’re supposed to be. 

‘As you know, [Percy] is somewhat younger than me. At first people would always say, “What are you going to do about the age difference?” I’d say, “Well, if he dies he dies!”‘

She mused: ‘Will I outlive you all? No, I don’t want that. I’ll settle for 100 years old, like Olivia de Havilland, who played Melanie in Gone With The Wind. She lives in Paris and is still going strong.’

Joan recently spoke about how she wouldn’t have even met her husband when she was in her 30s as he wasn’t even born yet.

The legendary actress told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain last month that despite their sizeable age gap she likes to think they’d have been a good match years earlier. 

Speaking about her 18-year marriage to Percy, Joan said she thinks the main reason why their relationship has lasted so long, is that he’s never been interested in sharing her acting spotlight.

She explained: ‘It’s very hard as an actor on set, and there’s a term called DCOL, Doesn’t Count On Location. 

‘I had a lot of experiences like that… two actors are disastrous, I remember dating Terence Stamp and we were fighting for the mirror. 

‘Also because of going on location so much, half of the films you do you’re on location in different countries, so the actors are split up I don’t think it’s good.’

When Piers asked if she thinks they would have gotten together at a younger age – such as her 30s – Joan quipped: ‘He wasn’t born!’ 

Joan added that she likes to think her and Percy would have still become a couple, even without the sizeable age gap.

She told Piers and Susanna: ‘Of course, he would be the same person I would think, we would be very compatible, we have the same interests and we like the same things.’

Percy is Joan’s fifth husband, after she was married to Maxwell Reid from 1952 to 1956, followed by Anthony Newley from 1963 to 1971, Ronald S. Kass from 1972 to 1983 and Peter Holm from 1985 to 1987.