I married a supermodel - this is the secret to us still being together 40 years later

Most of us mere mortals can only dream of marrying a supermodel. Leigh Lawson really achieved it, though. Back in the 1980s, this actor wooed one of the most famous British models of all time - Twiggy - and the couple has been together ever since.

"I love Twiggy more today than when we first met," Leigh tells the Daily Express. "I'm so grateful for her."

Most famous for his role as the leading man in a 1979 Roman Polanski film of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and in the 1980s TV series Travelling Man, Leigh is happy to reveal the secrets to his long marriage. He is now 82 years old while Twiggy is 76. Being already middle-aged when they first met is the key, he explains.

"I was in my early 40s when I met Twiggy and she was in her late 30s. Had we met when we were younger, I'm not sure it would have worked. I think couples are more likely to make compromises when they're that bit older."

It was Twiggy who seduced Leigh, not the other way round. The two first met in the mid-1980s when a mutual friend, actor Robert Powell, took them out for dinner.

There was an immediate attraction, but Leigh played it cool, opting not to ask for Twiggy's phone number. Then, to his surprise, a couple of days later she turned up outside his flat in a big blue Jaguar, asking him out "for a cup of tea". Four decades later, they're still together and living in London's Kensington district.

"Having respect for each other is important," Leigh adds on the recipe for a happy marriage. "Oh, and humour. We still make each other laugh."

He stresses how it's vital to stay busy in one's old age. Proud to be in her 70s and still beautiful, Twiggy remains in the modelling business. She appeared on the cover of Vogue Portugal last year and this year was a guest judge on Germany's Next Topmodel. Twiggy and Leigh have recently collaborated on two biographical dramas about Twiggy's life - a documentary directed by Sadie Frost and a musical written by Ben Elton.

Leigh, meanwhile, has just published a memoir which includes poems and stories from his long acting career, called Now and Then. The poems date from the late 1960s all the way up to modern day, covering over half a century and addressing themes such as love, fame, death, his toxic relationship with his father, and of course showbusiness.

"There is no doubt that it was great to be around in the 1960s and through the 1970s," he writes in the book. "Young people were gaining a voice in the world, new exciting music was emerging, and a revolution was evolving in what was possible for young, working-class people to achieve."

Having grown up in Warwickshire, where he started off in am-dram, Leigh moved to London in the Swinging 60s and won a place at RADA.

His first acting break came in 1972 when he appeared alongside Alec Guinness in a historical movie about Saint Francis of Assisi. Three years later he starred with Hayley Mills in a West End play called A Touch of Spring.

Leigh then divorced his first wife and embarked on a decade-long relationship with Mills, resulting in a son called Ace. But the couple separated in the mid-1980s.

Meanwhile, Leigh's acting career was taking off. During the filming of a 1975 TV movie called Love Among the Ruins, he met screen legends Laurence Olivier and Katharine Hepburn.

"I was so nervous because she had casting approval," he remembers of Hepburn. "But she was lovely. I remember she used to put her pushbike on top of her Rolls Royce and drive to Wimbledon Common to go for a ride around."

By this stage, Olivier was already in his late 60s. "We all met at the house Hepburn was renting for the first reading," Leigh recalls. "That was a bit nerve-wracking. Olivier, this giant of a man, came in last and it changed the atmosphere of the room. Everyone was in awe. He was ever so polite, a real old-school gentleman.

"I remember him saying to the scriptwriter: 'Thank you for writing such a wonderful part for me.' And the writer said: 'Oh, thank you for playing the part, Sir Lawrence.' And then the director said: 'For f**k's sake, we're not going to be this goddamn polite all through the show.' Of course it broke the ice."

Not long after that, Olivier turned up at a West End play Leigh was appearing in. At the end, the legendary actor came backstage to congratulate the youngster.

"Thank God I had a friend in the dressing room with me," Leigh remembers. "Then Olivier said to me: 'I enjoyed that wonderful performance today. You're a wonderful actor.' When he had gone, I said to my friend: 'Don't ever forget what that man just said to me, because no one will believe it. They'll think I've made it up. Fortunately I had a witness."

By the mid-1980s, Leigh had dozens of major stage, TV and film roles on his CV. In 1984 he appeared alongside Sean Connery in a fantasy epic called Sword of the Valiant. Although it was a box office flop, it gave Leigh the chance to see the Scottish film star in close-up action.

The director had offered Connery £1million for just five days' work. "When he'd finished, the director asked Connery if he could do one more day," Leigh recalls, continuing with a classic Connery accent. "And he replied: 'No, shorry. On Shunday, I'll be playing golf in Shpain'."

The movie was the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Leigh remembers the entire cast and a huge group of extras waiting inside a vast gothic hall for the former Bond star to arrive.

"He came in, riding this huge white stallion with all the armour and gear on, wielding a war axe in his hand. He got all the moves perfect and gave a magnificent speech. No fuss, no prima donna, it was pure professionalism and a lesson in acting. He delivered what he'd been paid for."

One famous actor Leigh has remained close friends with over the years is Dustin Hoffman. By coincidence, Leigh and Hoffman were performing Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice at the Phoenix Theatre in London's West End in July 1989, on the very day that Laurence Olivier died. At the end of the play, the entire cast lined up on stage for two minutes' silence in tribute to the greatest actor of their generation.

Leigh will never forget that moment. "I'm standing next to Dustin, as usual, at the curtain call, and he made the announcement about Olivier. It was the longest two minutes I've ever known. It was almost as if the great man himself was looking down on us. It was that emotional.

"Then we turned to walk off the stage, and the whole audience stood up as one, whistling, shouting, clapping hands and everything. Dustin looked over his shoulder, and said to me: 'Is that what you have to do to get a standing ovation in this country? F**king die?"

By this time, Leigh was happily married to Twiggy. Despite his own notoriety as a successful actor, and his marriage to one of the world's most famous supermodels, he says he has always had an uncomfortable relationship with fame.

"I didn't trust fame. I still don't trust it. It's very fickle. Why do people want to know you just because you're famous? It does intrude on your life. The pursuit of fame is not a good idea."

This attitude explains why, in the latter part of his career, Leigh concentrated more on theatre than film work. His last acting job was six years ago, in the West End. Since then he has been offered - but has firmly turned down - parts in major British soap operas.

But he's determined to remain busy, just like his wife. He recently heard a story about the filmmaker Billy Wilder who, on the occasion of his 92nd birthday, lamented the fact he had "wasted his 80s".

Leigh adds: "I took that as a message for me because I read it just before my 80th birthday.

"Now, as we're all living longer, we really shouldn't waste our 80s. That's my message: take heart; find a new thing that you love doing; or do what you've always wanted to do."

In Leigh's case, it's poetry that is now motivating him most of all. "It's given me a whole new lease of life," he says.

When his latest book was accepted for publication, he remembers being just as excited as he was, all the way back in the 1960s, when he was accepted at RADA.

"I walked on air when I opened the letter from RADA," he says. "Since then, the only time I walked on air was when I got the message from the publisher saying, 'We want to publish your poems.' I was walking on air for a fortnight."

This is one octogenarian who clearly won't be wasting his 80s.

• Now and Then by Leigh Lawson (Flapjack Press, £12) out now.