Judi Dench Found 'The One' With David Mills After Nine Years Of Being A Widow

Apr 08, 2022 by apost team

At 67 years old, tragedy struck Dame Judi Dench and her family when her husband of 30 years died of lung cancer. At the time, the legendary actress swore off ever remarrying. Despite that, the Dame found true love once again later in life.

Arguably one of the biggest cultural icons of our time, Dame Judi Dench has received many accolades for her decades-spanning career. She's a ten-time BAFTA award winner, twice Golden Globe winner, seven-time Academy Award nominee, and has also bagged a Tony Award in her time. 

The star's contribution to the world of acting has even earned her prestigious recognition from Queen Elizabeth II herself, who named her a Dame in 1988. But all the glitter and glamor doesn't mean Dench is immune to heartbreak; In 2001, she lost the love of her life, actor Michael Williams, after a bout with lung cancer. 

Dench has an ever-lasting love affair with the theater – so it's no surprise she met her first husband in one. The two first laid eyes upon one another in 1962, when Dench was 28 years old. At the time, the actress was cast as the female front in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" at the Old Vid theater. 

The actress and her co-actors celebrated opening night at a local pub, where Dench met Williams. Williams was also celebrating his own opening night, having starred in the play "Celebration." The young actors instantly had a spark and started a relationship but wouldn't marry until nine years later.

After Williams' passing, Dench was single for a long while but eventually fell in love again. After meeting conservationist David Mills in 2010, Dench was ready to try her hand at love once more. Keep reading to learn more about Dench's romantic history and her current relationship.

In an interview with Vogue, Dench revealed that Williams actually had to propose to her twice. The first proposal came when the two were touring Australia. She declined, she says, because she did not trust a proposal in such good weather. "We had better wait for a rainy day in Battersea (London)," she recalled telling him. 

And so Williams did just that. When the lovebirds finally arrived back at their home in the UK, the actor reiterated his desire to make Dench his partner for life. By then, Dench and Williams had become a power couple in the industry. 

They worked together on screen a few times, most notably on the sitcom "A Fine Romance." The two would famously have arguments on set but would share even more laughs. "He used to cry when he laughed," Dench recounted with a smile. "The more he laughed the more he cried. Oh god, he made me laugh."

Williams had also become Dench's biggest cheerleader when it came to her career. According to the interview, it was he who encouraged her to take up the iconic role in the "James Bond" films in the mid-90s, when Dench struggled to believe in herself. When she first started to find success as an actress, a director had told her that she would "never have a film career" because of her looks. That comment stayed with the actress for many years and made her doubt herself. 

And if it weren't for that encouragement, then we might have never got to know Dench for the Hollywood gem we do today. Her stint with the "James Bond" franchise landed her the role of Queen Victoria in "Mrs. Brown," which earned Dench her very first Academy Award nomination. 

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Then came many more successful gigs on the big screen, including "Tomorrow Never Dies," "Shakespeare in Love," "The World Is Not Enough," and "Chocolat." Williams would frequently praise his wife for her immense talent, even saying she was more talented than he is. "I never feel inferior as a person," he once said, according to the Daily Record. "And there are some things I can do a damn sight better than Jude."

In 1999, Williams and Dench's worlds were shattered when Williams was diagnosed with lung cancer. The actress left her role in the Broadway piece "Amy's View" to be with him at the time. 

Tragically, Williams died two years later, at the age of 65. In the aftermath, Dench got candid with Hello Magazine about her experience with grief. She said: 

"It changes who you are completely, I think. Because it's like you're walking along, and suddenly you're not looking and there's an enormous chasm in front of you." 

"And suddenly all sorts of things take you, expected kinds of things happen... I don't expect you ever get used to it," she added. "Sometimes the door in this house just opens and I think that he's just wandered in."

In 2013, Dench shared that she had begun to work more after Williams' passing. She explained that she was able to cope with the loss through acting. "You see, we always made sure that we made time for each other. People, friends, kept saying, 'You are not facing up to it; you need to face up to it.' And maybe they were right, but I felt I was — in the acting. Grief supplies you with an enormous amount of energy. I needed to use that up," Dench explained.

After taking time to grieve, Dench ended up meeting another wonderful man nine years later that swept her off her feet. Dench met Mills in 2010 when the actress visited the British Wildlife Center for her upcoming BBC documentary on trees.

"She and I first met when she came here as a punter with her family in 2010," Mills recounted in an interview with Radio Times in 2017. "I happened to be in the office that day, saw her come in and I thought, 'Judi Dench!' We got chatting, and a couple of months later I asked her to open a new red squirrel enclosure here."

"It developed as a slow, organic friendship that grew," Mills continued, "I invited her to come and have supper one night, and then she asked me to one of her things. It's lasted because we have the same sense of humor – it's hopeless without that – and then she's passionate about wildlife, as I am about theater and films, so we go into one another's worlds. She's a great giggler. Of course, I'd seen lots of her work before we met. Loved her in 'Mrs. Brown.'" 

Starting off gradually getting to know each other has worked for the couple. Several years later, they are still in love and going strong. 

Dench told Good Housekeeping that same year that she was grateful to have found a "jolly nice friend" in Mills but wasn't happy to call him her "partner."

"Partner is something to do with dancing. Partner – horrible word. Friend? No. Boyfriend? No. Chap? Will chap do?"

Clearly, the couple has set their own rules when it comes to their relationship. Although they've enjoyed almost a decade together, Dench is firm in saying that she is not planning on marrying again. 

"He's not going to propose. No, no, no, no, no," the actress said when asked if she would walk down the aisle for Mills. "Let's all just pull ourselves together and be our age."

Dench and Williams' love had blossomed due to their mutual interest in nature and conservation. The actress even once said that she found solace in her "secret woodland." The woodland she referred to was a small forest located on the six acres of land she owns where she resides in Surrey. The forest offers Dench a place to connect and relax with the things she loves the most; nature, wildlife and trees. 

"I think of trees as my extended family, living, breathing, and social, like us," Dench explained. "Whenever I can, whatever the season, this is where I escape to."

The actress first moved to her Surrey home over three decades ago with her late husband. 

Together they began a tradition of planting a tree for each loved one that passes away. Dench still carries on that tradition today. The forest includes trees for her brother Jeff, fellow actor and old friend Robert Hardy, and of course, her late husband, Michael Williams. For Dench, the act is a bittersweet way of keeping memories of those who are gone alive.

"It is about remembering, but it's through a living thing, so you don't remember them and stop. The memory goes on, and gets more wonderful," the actress said. 

Filming the documentary, "Judi Dench: My Passion For Trees," has taught her so much about the trees she grew up loving. Making a movie about something so dear to her heart meant a lot to Dench. 

The actress said that even though she's always been passionate about trees, the documentary was an eye-opener about just how special they really are. 

"It's been wonderful to discover that my trees aren't just amazing individuals, but that they are part of an extended family," Dench said. "When I plant my trees, I always hope that they feel part of a community, that they would be communicating with each other. And now it's so reassuring to find out that it's true."

Her new learnings have made her see forests and trees in a whole new light. After the documentary, Dench said she would "never be able to look at (trees) in the same way again."

"I shall never be able to walk so nonchalantly through a woodland again without thinking of all that incredible work that's going on underneath the surface," she added.

A conservationist who has dedicated his life to the study of nature, perhaps Mills is the perfect match for Dench, after all. Just like the actress, however, Mills admitted that he was taken by surprise when the two first developed a relationship. He never expected, he said, to fall in love later in life. "Neither of us set out for it. We laugh and joke so much, and enjoy one another's worlds so much, it's great, especially when you get to our age," Mills said. 

The couple chooses to live apart and have stayed in their respective homes – about four miles away from each other. But they know to still make time for one another. "It works very well," the conservationist said.

After losing Williams, Dench didn't expect to find love again at this point in her life. So, her relationship with Mills began slowly. "I wasn't even prepared to be ready for it... It was very gradual and grown-up. We got together, in a way, through the animals. It's just wonderful," she shared. 

However, the couple does not have future plans to live together, preferring their separate spaces. Dench explained, "We are much too independent. And he is very busy. He has a business to run."

Dench is also focused on her legendary career but has stated that she does not like being referred to as a "national treasure." "For one thing," she said to The Guardian in 2021, "it's a terrible label. So dusty, so dreary. For another, it relegates me to being an 86-year-old woman. Whereas in my mind's eye I'm 6ft and willowy and about 39."

The actress feels that the term puts her up on a pedestal, which keeps her separate from the rest of the world. She added: "Do you know what it's like? It's like they've picked me up and put me inside a little glass-fronted cabinet. Then they've locked the door so I can't get out."

At this point in her life, Dench remains independent and hardworking, even though her eyesight has deteriorated due to macular degeneration. The star said, "I've had to find another way of learning lines and things, which is having great friends of mine repeat them to me over and over and over again. So I have to learn through repetition, and I just hope that people won't notice too much if all the lines are completely hopeless!"

Dench's determination and ability to let herself find love again after losing her husband show how resilient the star truly is.

There are few actresses with the talent and poise of Judi Dench. Are you a fan of her work? What do you think about her finding love again after her husband passed away? Let us know, and feel free to send this story along to your friends and loved ones.