Actress Joan Collins claims her first husband plied her with alcohol and raped her on their first date

Dame Joan Collins claimed her first husband, actor Maxwell Reed, raped her on their first date and tried to set her up to “old rich men” for up to $13,500 (£10,000) a night.

The British actress, 88, reported on the attack in a BBC documentary on Saturday night and claimed the Northern Irish film star, 14 years her senior, invited her to his home and plied her with rum and coke. “At the time, my mother would have said I had been taken advantage of,” Collins remembers. “Now we call it rape.”

Collins said Reed took her virginity and she married him “out of shame” in 1952, and over the course of their four-year marriage she was subjected to a steady stream of abuse. The final straw was when Reed allegedly tried to betray her to a Sheik.

“We were at Les Ambassadeurs, a terribly fancy nightclub in Mayfair,” she said. “Max had a habit of being attracted to rich, older men, and I started to get a vague idea of ​​what it was about. Max said to me: “He’ll pay you £10,000 for one night – and I can even watch.” I looked at my handsome, hideous husband and started to cry. “Never in a million years.” I went home to mom.”

The couple divorced in 1956 and Reed died in 1974. Collins married four more times, tying the knot with actor Anthony Newley, American businessman Ron Kass, singer Peter Holm and current film producer husband Percy Gibson.

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