Joan Collins rubbishes son’s claims that her ex-husband Anthony Newley was a paedophile
The actress' son said his father 'was drawn to youthfulness' and 'thought innocence was an aphrodisiac'
DAME Joan Collins has denied her son Sacha Newley's claim that Anthony Newley - her ex-husband and his father - was a paedophile.
The actress' daughter Tara has also spoken out against her brother and said she is "deeply upset" by his allegations against their late dad.
Dame Joan, 84, said in a statement: "As far as I'm concerned this is absolutely untrue."
Today she told Good Morning Britain: "I think that Sacha's being extremely naive and not really knowing the meaning of that word because what Tony admittedly was, is he loved young women and young women of 17, 18, 19 years old. Not children by any means.
"Never in a million years would I have been married to somebody like that."
She added: "Categorically, I can say that it is not true, that I never saw any of that kind of behaviour from Anthony."
And Tara, 54, said: "I was shocked by my brother's comments in today's papers. From my end, I don't recognise the man he is describing.
"I had an incredibly close relationship with my father and am deeply upset by these false allegations."
Artist Sacha Newley, 52, made the allegations about his late father, an actor and singer-songwriter, in an interview with .
It comes as artist Sasha gears up to release a memoir focusing on his childhood in Hollywood, entitled Unaccompanied Minor.
In the interview Sacha bluntly addressed long-circulated rumours about his dad. He said: “He was a paedophile. My father was drawn to youthfulness.
“He thought innocence was an aphrodisiac. That was his sexual proclivity and it's a very dangerous, destructive thing.”
Sacha added as child he witnessed sex regularly.
He said: “My father put sex front and centre. He exposed me to all of that — it was absolutely inappropriate.”
The artist claimed his father's X-rated 1969 film Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, is a “confession of paedophilia”.
The film was written and directed by Anthony and starred himself as Merkin and Collins as his on-screen wife Polyester Poontang.
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Meanwhile Sacha and his sister Tara played the couple's children.
He said: "Mercy Humppe is the 'perfect childlover' - an underage girl. He [Tony] didn't peg her age exactly, but it falls within the [Roman] Polanski thing."
Sacha told The Sunday Times he believed the film was autobiographical and what it revealed about his dad led to the breakdown of his parents' marriage.
They divorced after a nasty court battle in 1970.
Newley died aged 67 in 1999 following a battle with cancer.
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