Dame Joan Collins has revealed she nearly walked away from Dynasty at the height of its success after the show “suspended” her and refused to give her a raise.
The Hollywood icon, 91, portrayed Alexis Colby in the 1980s soap opera, which catapulted her into international superstardom.
However, the Primetime Emmy winner has revealed that after she was refused a raise despite her character’s growing popularity, she said “screw you” and abruptly left in season five.
Speaking to The London Standard’s chief theatre critic Nick Curtis, she recalled: “They suspended me and refused to give me a raise even though I was extremely popular and on every magazine cover.
“So, in the end I said, 'screw you', and didn't go back for season five”.
Despite her frustration, Collins rethought her decision and went on to appear on the show until it ended in 1989, and even returned as Alexis for the 1991 miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion.
But the acting legend didn’t leave the series with just memories—she also took some memorabilia from the set: “I stole a lot from Dynasty,” she reminisced. “I couldn't steal the clothes, so I took the costume jewellery.
“I hope Candy Spelling [Aaron's widow] doesn't read this. She'll want them back.”
Aside from her time on Dynasty, the Golden Globe winner reflected on her past relationships, having been married five times – the most recent, Percy Gibson, 32 years her junior, in 2002.
Although happily married to Gibson, Collins expressed regret over "two dreadful marriages” - her first to actor Maxwell Reed and her fourth to Peter Holm - but held no regrets about her second and third marriages, as they gave her children.
“My first one, when I was 18 [to actor Maxwell Reed] and my last one to Peter Holm,” she shared. “I don’t regret Tony [writer and actor Anthony Newley] and Ron [Kass, a businessman] because I had children with them.
“And sadly, they’re all dead now.”
When corrected that Holm is still alive, she said uninterested: “Is he? I don’t follow his fortunes. Michael Caine used to call him ‘the Swedish comedian’.”
She revisited her past relationships while criticising Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners.
Reflecting on her own life, she emphasised how hard she has worked to save for everything, including her three homes, and added, “No husband has ever given me anything—they’ve only taken from me.”
Her past romances haven’t just taken from her financially, but emotionally too. Collins previously revealed the trauma of having an abortion at 26 while engaged to a then 23-year-old Warren Beatty.
In her memoir Behind The Shoulder Pads, she shared how she feared having a baby would end her career and described the experience as "horrifying," calling it "too vivid and too painful" to dwell on.
They parted ways in the early '60s, with him later marrying Annette Bening and having four children.
Collins, meanwhile, had two children with her second husband Newley and another with her third husband, Kass.
Despite their split over 60 years ago, Collins revealed that the Oscar winner once confessed to her husband, Percy, that he still had feelings for her.
“The last time I saw him, he was going into some event with Annette [Bening, his wife], and he said to Percy, ‘I still love this woman.’ Ridiculous,” she shared.
