Helen Mirren: 'I was date-raped many times'

Actress Helen Mirren was dated raped several times, she said today.

The 58-year-old acclaimed star told Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper that she was attacked “not once either, several times”.

She said the incidents took place when she was aged between 16 and 25 and described them as “terribly upsetting and disturbing”.

Dame Helen spoke of how the attacks left her uncomfortable with men and made her see the opposite sex as “so vile and so cruel and alien and nasty”.

The star of British film Calender Girls said: “I was being pursued by them purely for sex and absolutely nothing else.”

She revealed the horrifying incidents as she was being interviewed about a new series of award-winning crime show Prime Suspect.

The half Russian actress is reprising her role as DCI Jane Tennison in a sixth run of the hit ITV1 programme.

Mirren has also appeared in a host of movies including The Long Good Friday and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover.

She received Oscar nominations for The Madness Of King George and Gosford Park.