Personal Life
Atkins was married to Julian Glover in 1957; they divorced in 1966. (A day after his divorce, Glover married actress Isla Blair. They are still married to date.) She has been married to her current husband, Bill Shepherd, since 2 February 1978. Atkins was propositioned by Colin Farrell on location in 2004, shortly before she turned 70; she said the incident helped her pass that milestone far more easily than she otherwise would have expected. The Oldie magazine awarded her the 'Refusenik of the Year' award for this incident.
Her father died aged 86 and her mother aged 94.
She is a lifelong insomniac and takes sleeping pills every night. In 1995, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but has recovered.
In 1997, she wrote the screenplay for Mrs Dalloway, starring Vanessa Redgrave. It received rave reviews but was a box-office failure. It was a financial disaster for Atkins and her husband who had invested in the film. She said about this incident: "I have to work. I was nearly bankrupted over Mrs Dalloway, and if you are nearly bankrupted, you are in trouble for the rest of your life. I don't have a pension. In any case, it doesn't hurt me to work. I think it's quite good, actually."
"All through my career I have tried to do new work, but there is a problem in the West End as far as new work is concerned. As a theatregoer, I get bored with seeing the same old plays again and again. I felt terrible the other night because I bumped into Greta Scacchi and she asked me if I was coming to see her in The Deep Blue Sea. I said, 'Greta, I'm so old, I've seen it so many times. I've seen it with Peggy Ashcroft, with Vivien Leigh, with Googie Withers, with Penelope Wilton and I played it myself when I was 19. I can't bring myself to see it again. She was very sweet about it."
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