‘I ran away from the responsibility of having a family’ shared the 74-year-old star. Harriet Walter has shared her thoughts on never having kids, admitting that she sometimes wishes she had done. The award-winning actor, 74, is playing Margaret Thatcher for the second time in her career, in the forthcoming Channel 4 series, Brian and Maggie.
Explaining that her success on both stage and screen kept her occupied throughout her life, she discussed her choice to remain childless. “Maybe it’s a cowardly thing I did: I ran away from the responsibility of having a family, because I do think it’s a big bind and I just didn’t want that.”.
She added that her life may have been different had her career not taken off. “I didn’t have that strong maternal urge, or one to settle down. But if I hadn’t acted, I probably would have been more conventional,” she continued. But, she added: “There are obvious times when you think, ‘I wish I had [children],’ but it’s an abstract thought, not a physical need.”.
The star, who has been in a relationship with Fantastic Beasts actor Guy Paul for 16 years, also opened up about the challenges of finding love later in life, saying it was “very difficult”. “When you’re young, that’s what everything’s aimed at. Music culture, party culture, club culture,” she said.
