Helen Mirren Receives The Shocking News That She's Actually 72 - And The Hilarious Way She Handles It Is Exactly Why We Love Her

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(Image credit: Shutterstock/Rex)

Helen Mirren is one of the world's most celebrated actresses, and has been tasked with remembering line after line for all of her hugely popular films. But it seems that even she has the odd slip up from time to time.

While live on US TV show Ellen, Helen was stumped to learn that she'd got wrong a pretty major detail about herself wrong.

Host Ellen Degeneres began asking the famed actress about her age, saying "You're not shy about saying your age which I think is important, you're 72."

But Helen quickly corrected Ellen, telling her she was actually 73.

However, while chatting and revealing how her and her husband are just six months apart in age, Helen began to look a little confused, suggesting she was second-guessing herself about being 73.

She shared, "I think I'm 73!". Are you sure? I think I'm 73?"

Ellen went on to ask, "What year were you born?", to which Helen replied, "1945". Ellen, and an employee of-screen then confirmed, "Yes, you're 72."

Rather than be embarrassed by the slip up, Helen seemed delighted with the revelation, and the fact that she'd just 'gained a whole year of her life'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4NRe5NI5Gc

She said, "I'm 72? This is fantastic! This is amazing. I've just made a whole year. Because my husband and I thought we were 74, and then we we worked it out, and no, no, no, we're both 73.

"So we both went, ‘Oh, fantastic, we've got a whole year, a whole extra year!' And now I've got another whole year!"

Host Ellen then joked, "Although it does seem like you're ageing, you don't know your age. You look great but you're losing it."

To which Helen joked, "This is true."

During the interview, the actress also shared that she's an avid fan of Netflix's series The Crown, having played Queen Elizabeth II herself many times.

She confessed to Ellen that she was a huge fan of Claire Foy's portrayal of the monarch in the popular drama, but that she won't ever be tempted to join the show as the Queen herself, as the monarch gets older.

Helen hilariously admitted, "I don't want the headlines to read ‘Queen gets hit by a bus'! I wanted to kind of get away from that."

Amy Hunt

Amy Hunt is an experienced digital journalist specialising in homes, interiors and hobbies. She began her career working as the features assistant at woman&home magazine, before moving over to the digital side of the brand where she eventually became the Lifestyle Editor up until January 2022. Amy won the Digital Journalist of the Year award at the AOP Awards in 2019 for her work on womanandhome.com.