Joan Collins: Sex is secret to youth

Los Angeles - Joan Collins says the secret to looking young is having sex.

The 78-year-old actress - who is famed for her youthful looks - insists it is important for women's happiness and appearance to stay active in the bedroom as they get older.

In an extract from her book The World According to Joan serialised by the Daily Mail newspaper, Joan - whose husband Percy Gibson is 32 years her junior - said: "Let's not forget the importance of sex when it comes to looking and feeling good. Many of the world's most celebrated women have been sexually active well into middle age and beyond.

"The great French actress Sarah Bernhardt, and the legendary designer Coco Chanel, both had lovers well into their later lives (...) It is every adult's prerogative to enjoy sex (although young people may not agree). It delights me to read about a couple marrying in their 80s, or discovering a lost love from 50 years ago. Romance never dies - if you believe in it."

Obsession with youth

Joan has also attacked the modern Hollywood trend to have cosmetic surgery to stay looking vibrant and sexy.

The former Dynasty star insists you don't need to go under the knife to stay attractive and insists having skill with a make-up brush is just as effective.

She added in her book: "The idea that older women should not - or cannot - be sexy without surgical assistance is absurd. This obsession with youth is actually an Anglo-Saxon thing (...) It really distresses me to see so many ghastly botoxed and artificially filled faces.

"Many of these women, quite a few of them actresses, look so strange with their pillow lips, puffed up cheeks and fake cheekbones, which make their eyes look like tiny pits in a marshmallow cloud."