Dame Joanna Lumley asked controversial US politician to be her Valentine
Dame Joanna Lumley asked Rudy Giuliani to be her Valentine.
The 78-year-old acting icon met the 80-year-old former Mayor of New York City - who served from 1994 until 2001 and later became an advisor for Donald Trump before being disbarred as an attorney last summer over charges related to false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 US election - at a Valentine's Day lunch during his time in office celebrating him after a past clean-up on the Big Apple, and she could not help but send a card with nothing in it to him.
She told Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett on the latest episode of their 'Dish from Waitrose' podcast: "One of the New York mayors was over, Mayor Giuliani. He came over to London, I think when Boris Johnson was here.
"Anyway, after he'd done a great clean-up of New York, he was over here being fêted and there was a great big lunch celebrating him, and it was Valentine's Day.
"And we had all kinds of heart-related things all sprinkled about on the table. And so, I got one of the hearts and I wrote on the back of it: 'Be my Valentine XXXXX.' And I gave it to one of the waiters, and I said, [whispering] 'Take it to him.'
"Mayor Giuliani had got his girlfriend or his wife with him, and he received this, and he looked at it, and she went [whispering] 'What's that?'
"I felt so happy. It's so nice, just a little bit of, oh my god!'
The 'Amandaland' star has been married to her 70-year-old husband Stephen Barlow since 1986, and she has declared the secret to their long marriage is respect - and simply not getting divorced.
Dame Joanna added: "Adrian Edmondson [comedian] gave the answer to that. He said: 'Don't get divorced.' A long marriage is that. But actually, bless - I think a lot of it starts, rather boringly, on respect.
"You've got to respect your partner. You've got to love what they do; you never feel contempt. If you have contempt in your body at any stage, don't even start going out with them.
"You've got to pretty much adore them. Have a bit of a crush on them. And you've got to be endlessly forgiving about things, because knowing that you've got as many shortfalls as you think they may have."
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