Joan Collins Finally Found Love with Decades-Younger Man after Four Failed Marriages

Veteran starlet Joan Collins never wanted to marry more than once in her life. However, what she feared came to pass, and she endured several heartbreaks in her failed marriages and brief relationships.  

When English actress Joan Collins was about to wed Hollywood playboy Arthur Loew in the fifties, she contemplated marriage at the time.  

Collins confided in her friends, saying she had to be sure before walking down the aisle with Loew because she feared having multiple former husbands.  

English veteran award-winning actress Joan Collins posing in a tube dress paired with pearl earrings and necklace. | Source: Getty Images

“I’d hate to be one of those girls with four or five husbands,” she said. Sadly, her life turned out just the way she previously feared.  

Collins’ first marriage was to Northern Irish actor Maxwell Reed whom she wed in 1952. The former couple divorced in 1956. Reed was 15 years her senior. The author later revealed that she married him out of shame.  

Collins remarried in 1963 to actor and singer Anthony Newley, with whom she welcomed two children, daughter Tara and son Alexander. The pair divorced in 1971.  

Actor Maxwell Reed and his bride Joan Collins after their wedding at Caxton Hall Register Office in 1952, in London. | Source: Getty Images

Before Collins’ second marriage, she dated actor Warren Beatty in 1959, but because of his infidelity, the two parted ways. The “Dynasty” star later revealed in her 1978 autobiography that she had fallen pregnant with Beatty’s child but terminated the pregnancy.  

After her second divorce, Collins told herself she would never marry again. But that all changed when she met her future third husband, Ronald Kass: 

“I was 35 and determined never to get hitched again. But then I met a tall, handsome American called Ronald S. Kass through a mutual friend.” 

COLLIN’S THIRD & FOURTH SPOUSES SEEMED TO HAVE USED HER 

Within weeks of courtship, Kass boldly asked Collins to marry him, despite still being married with three children. The “The Stud” star wrote a piece for the Daily Mail wherein she recalled his persistence in asking her to marry him: 

“For a year, he bombarded me with love, attention, and marriage proposals.” 

Collins eventually caved, and the two got hitched in 1972, later welcoming their only child together, daughter Katyana. Soon after, the marriage went downhill following Kass’ addiction to illegal substances. 

Joan Collins and her husband Ronald S. Kass during the 39th Annual Golden Globe Awards at Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 30, 1982 in Beverly Hills, California. | Source: Getty Images

However, the last straw was when Collins discovered that he had forged her signature on an overdraft document, leading to the dissolution of their marriage in 1983. 

The columnist then wed her fourth husband, former singer Peter Holm in 1985 in Las Vegas. Holm was 14 years older than Collins and became her manager and co-producer.  

He had a secret affair with a 20-year-old married woman while his wife was filming the drama series “Dynasty.” More shocking details unraveled later on.  

Joan Collins and her boyfriend Peter Holm during the 42nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 26, 1985 in Beverly Hills, California. | Source: Getty Images

Holm had made Collins sign a prenup, and once the divorce proceedings began, he demanded tens and thousands of dollars in monthly allowances, including two of their jointly-owned properties.  

Through the back and forth, Collins asked Holm to pay over a million dollars for furniture and food from the fridge he had taken from their abode in Los Angeles, including Christmas decorations.  

In 1988, one of Kass’s new girlfriends, Kathy Wardlow, made a startling revelation when she revealed that the pop singer told her that he only married Collins for her money. She added that he had been unfaithful throughout their union “because she was old and wrinkled.” 

Joan Collins and her husband Peter Holm attending the “Down & Out in Beverly Hills” premiere party at Pips Club on January 28, 1986 in Los Angeles, California. | Source: Getty Images

Collins had hoped that her fourth marriage would be her last, yet she had no idea what she would go through with Holm, who had a “murky history.” She declared no more divorces with her fourth marriage, saying: 

 “There can be no more divorces. I absolutely cannot and will not go through that again.” 

Yet, in 1975 her world turned upside down when Holm and 13 other people were arrested and charged with smuggling $1.2 million worth of diamonds from Belgium into Sweden.  

Joan Collins and Peter Holm during Variety Arts Club Celebrity Tribute to Lucille Ball at NBC TV Studios in Burbank, California. | Source: Getty Images

The authorities also suspected that he and a former girlfriend ran a call-girl racket and brothel. Unaware of his track record, Collins seemed madly in love with Holm when out in public and had no reason not to trust him fully.  

She allowed him to be in control of her finances soon after he moved in with her. Holm became her manager and got rid of all her advisers, including an agent, accountant, and lawyer. Collins splurged on all their living expenses, and in doing that, she was left with a broken heart.  

Those close to her showed concern as one of her girlfriends admitted that they all could see that Holm was bad news, but Collins refused to listen to them: 

“She was blind to the faults that we could see. He was just after her money.” 

But when she finally decided that she would no longer put up with him, the Golden Globe Award winner celebrated her freedom from Holm with a big party. She served him with divorce papers in 1987.

COLLINS FINALLY FOUND HER LOVE AND TRUE SOULMATE 

Following a journey of multiple heartbreaks, Collins finally found someone she could call a “forever husband.” She met her fifth husband, Percy Gibson, in San Francisco in 2000 while starring in a play for a company he managed.  

Gibson is 31 years younger than his wife. Collins once told The Sun that the fact that they have a significant age difference did not matter to her: 

“The fact that I was older didn’t matter to us. It was giddy, it was fantastic, and Percy and I fell madly in love.” 

“I’ve finally found my true soulmate. And my husband forever,” said Collins, adding, “He’s the best. I can’t imagine life without him.” The couple wed in February 2002 at Claridge’s Hotel in London. 

While this is her fifth marriage, it is Gibson’s second, as he was previously married to Cynthia Bauer for over a decade. Gibson is a Hollywood producer best known for films such as “Banksy’s Coming to Dinner” “The Time of Our Lives,” and the TV show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” 

His spouse once said that because he is younger than her, people used to ask what she would do about their age gap. Collins joked: “Well if he dies, he dies!” 

In October 2021, during an interview with The Sunday Times, Collins said she was relieved to be married to a younger man, saying if it were an age mate, things would fall apart: 

“Thank God I married somebody 30 years younger than me. I couldn’t bear to be married to someone my own age.” 

She gushed, saying Gibson is the glue that holds their family together. Even though they have no kids together, he is a stepfather to her children from previous marriages. 

Collins and Gibson celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in February 2022. They marked the occasion with a pre-anniversary party with their friends, and Collins posted a group selfie from the evening on her Instagram account.  

The two-time Soap Opera Digest Award winner shared a throwback photo from her wedding day with Gibson, which showed the newlyweds cutting a cake. “20 years ago today, #ahubby and I tied the knot and have been happily married ever since,” she wrote.

Two days following the special event, Collins posted a picture of custom-made earrings designed by Gibson for their wedding anniversary. Before that, she shared an image in an embrace with her spouse, who held a card that read: “Mr. and Mrs. Fabulous.”

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