Dame Joanna Lumley has opened up about living “separate lives” to husband Stephen Barlow ahead of their anniversary. Joanna met Stephen at a family friend’s wedding in the 1970s.

She says he was in a “tremendous rage” at the time because half of the music he was meant to play “hadn’t turned up”. Speaking to the Independent, Joanna called their meeting a “colossal shock” and “completely memorable”. She explained that it was on the way to a production in the Lake District that Stephen asked her to marry him. The couple tied the knot in 1986 in Fort William in the Scottish Highlands.

Now, as the couple prepare to celebrate four decades of marriage, Joanna has explained that living “separate lives” has been key to their longevity. Speaking to Yours magazine, she said: “I go off on trips and I do stuff and film. He goes off and does operas and things.

“But I think one of the first things you’ve got to have for whoever you marry, who is going to be your chosen companion, is respect. You’ve got to think the world of them.”

Joanna, who has a son, Jamie, 57, from her relationship with photographer Michael Claydon, says she “loves music”. She however admits that she “didn’t know much” before she married pianist Stephen.

The couple now live in south London together and have a music room in their garden. Joanna says she often finds herself “asking questions” about music because she is “completely in love” with it, but concedes she is an “amateur”.

She jokes that she finds herself “boring” her husband while firing questions at him while she is “sitting in the bath last thing at night and he’s reading in the bedroom”. Joanna, who turns 80 next month, says she will invite friends around for supper.

Ahead of the milestone, she says she has realised there’s “not all that amount of time left”. She said: “My time must be coming quite soon, and I don’t want to have wasted a minute of being on this beautiful planet.”

Speaking to The Mirror, she added: "It's extraordinary, isn't it? I've been saying I'm 80 for the last two or three years because I thought I was, but I wasn't. People are making a big hoo-ha about this 80, as if I'm somehow going to be different, as if some huge precipice is reached. I'll be working on my birthday. I'm thrilled and I'm touched that people have remembered and think about it more than I do."

Elsewhere, The Absolutely Fabulous star recently opened up about a terrifying ordeal outside her £2.5 million London home. Neighbour Emma Duncan said she was "woken in the middle of the night" as masked thieves tried to steal Joanna’s car.

"A group of men on motorbikes had surrounded a car whose alarm was going off; one of them was sitting in the driver’s seat, yelling ‘I can’t f****** start it," she explained, as she revealed how the car boot was damaged.

Emma was writing for The Times, as she revealed how Joanna had stepped out of her house in her dressing gown to find the gang on motorbikes. They were attempting to start the car but fled when caught.

Joanna launched her career as a model in the 1960s before appearing in shows like Coronation Street and The Satanic Rites of Dracula. Her first major role was as Purdey in The New Avengers, before appearing in cult-classic Sapphire & Steel.

In 1992 she began playing Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous, opposite Jennifer Saunders. She reprised the role for the 2016 movie. She now hosts a podcast, Joanna and the Maestro with her husband.