Helen Mirren Still Loves Liam Neeson Who Fell for Her at 1st Sight — She Said They Were 'Not Meant to Be Together'

Liam Neeson was stunned by Helen Mirren's looks when he first saw her, but they were never destined to be together. Mirren still loves him, but she is happily married to someone else while he has remained single after losing his wife.

Helen Mirren, whose original name is Ilynea Lydia Mironoff, is a British actress famously known for her role in the TV series "Prime Suspect" and her portrayal of Elizabeth II in "The Queen," which won her an Academy Award.

Mirren was born in London to a Russian father and a Scottish mother. At 18, she joined Britain's National Youth Theatre, and one year later, she migrated to the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was the start of her career that won her many awards and nominations.

William "Liam" Neeson is a Northern Irish American actor known for playing powerful men in films. He used to be a good boxer but abandoned that career and enrolled at Queen's university to study physics and computer science.

One year after, he left college and started working as a forklift driver. He did that for some time before studying to become an educator. All the while, he took drama classes on the side, and in 1976, he joined Belfast's Lyric Players Theatre.

Two years later, Neeson became a part of a more successful theatre in Dublin, and in 1979 he made his debut with motion pictures in a religious, educational movie called "Christiana."

That was how his career began, and little did he know that in the 80s, it would make him cross paths with a woman he would fall in love with but fail to keep.

They Were a Serious Item

Helen Mirren and Liam Neeson met each other because of their acting. They were both recruited to work on the 1981 movie titled "Excalibur." One thing led to another, and the two ended up living together for about four years.

According to Mirren, they were considered a serious item for a while before Neeson found fame as an actor. And they enjoyed spending time together doing things they liked, including camping. In a past interview, Mirren reminisced about a camping experience from back then.

After her passing, he brushed his feelings aside rather than deal with it.

Mirren said that they went camping that day in a small tent the size of a table, and they drove to the campsite in a small car that had the over six feet tall actor slouching to keep his head from touching the roof. After they set up the tent, it started raining, and the torrents continued for days.

It was not the ideal condition for camping, but it did not discourage the two. After that time, they went camping in France and other places because she liked it. Mirren has said it is one of her favorites, especially with Neeson and her husband, Taylor Hackford.

Mirren has said that what she shared with Neeson back then was more than just casual dating as they lived together. He was crazy about her, and she felt the same, but for her, it was not exactly love at first sight as it was for Neeson.

In fact, he only became certain that she genuinely liked him when he caught her imitating his walk behind his back. Before seeing her do the walk, he had read somewhere that she only imitated the walk of a guy she fancied.

Even after he knew, getting a woman like her to focus on only him was an arduous task that saw Neeson fight off a considerable number of men who were also after her heart.

How Helen Feels about Him Today

Mirren once revealed that all the men she has been with have a shirt she made. The list is a short one that includes Peter O'Toole, her current husband, and Neeson.

In the past, when Mirren spoke about her relationship with Neeson, she stated that they had loved each other intensely but that the relationship was never going to last. She said:

"We were not meant to be together in that way, but we loved each other very, very much. I love him deeply to this day. He's such an amazing guy."

As the interview progressed, Miren talked about how she has changed over the years; however, she has never forgotten what she shared with Neeson, and her feelings for him have remained the same.

The Aftermath of Their Love

Despite their love for one another, Mirren and Neeson ended up marrying different people. Mirren tied the knot with her husband, Taylor, in 1997, ten years after they started dating.

They have been together for more than three decades but usually spend a lot of time apart. It was not until the COVID-19 pandemic that she admitted she had the opportunity to sit with him at their dinner table for several nights in a row. Mirren said:

"I've worked every year since I was 20. COVID was the first time in the whole of my life I've not worked for six months."

Taylor, a director, has always had to travel because of work, and the same goes for Mirren, but while that causes strife in some marriages, the actress believes it kept her and Taylor together. According to her, they usually spent so much time apart that they were always happy to see one another.

Mirren is glad to be married to Taylor and has said that finding him later in her life has also helped their union because they both see it as a worthy partnership.

In Neeson's case, he married a woman named Natasha Richardson. They were happy; however, she passed away in a hospital in New York City on March 18, 2009, after enduring a head injury while skiing in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec.

The demise was overwhelming for Neeson, who had truly loved her. After her passing, he chose to brush his feelings to the side rather than deal with them, and years after, he still said that the loss is something he still has not "fully comprehended."