Terence Stamp was well known for his acting and his love life - but what is less public is his life being a dear companion of Princess Diana.

Speaking to the Daily Express in an interview in 2017, Stamp then aged 79, said: "The fact is I am past my best. "I've still got wonderful relationships with women but I'm not looking to get ******* four times a week. My feeling about sex is that I've finally been tossed from the saddle of a horse that I've been clinging on to for the past 60 years. So it's kind of a relief really.

"I guess that the only thing that changes with age is that you have a shift in understanding. Because of your own values you understand what young women are. You let go of things."

Across a career spanning six decades - his first role was in Peter Ustinov's 1962 masterpiece Billy Budd, which earned him an Oscar nomination - Stamp has certainly learnt to "understand" women.

Notable romances featured Julie Christie, whom he encountered whilst shooting 1967's Far From The Madding Crowd, alongside supermodel Jean Shrimpton.

Throughout their romance they were branded "the most photographed couple in London".

More recently, he was wedded for six years to Elizabeth O'Rourke, whom he encountered while she was employed at an Australian pharmacy. They exchanged vows in 2002 when she was 29 and he was 64.

However, his friendship with the late Princess Diana is perhaps less well-known.

"The relationship came about because my friend Oliver Hoare, the art dealer, knew her," revealed Stamp who died aged 87. "I said, 'I'd love to have a proper chat with her, why don't you ask her if she's up for it?' He asked and she said yes. We got on amazingly well."

Stamp maintains that despite his reputation, his friendship with Diana remained strictly platonic. "It wasn't like that. I thought that was the last thing she needed really. She just wanted somebody to talk to that was a guy, who would give her objective opinions. And because of that we just kind of opened up to each other.

"I saw the sadness in her because...she was a believer in the marriage and all that. And it didn't turn out the way she expected it to."

Such was the depth of their friendship that Stamp would even prepare dinner for the Princess - the first occasion she visited he recalls creating mushroom risotto, garnishing the dish with the letters HRH in truffle paste.

"It wasn't a formal thing, we'd just meet up for a cup of tea, or sometimes we'd have a long chat for an hour, sometimes it would be very quick," he said. "The time I spent with her was a good time."

However, truffle paste and private dinners with royalty was worlds apart from Stamp's childhood.

The eldest of five siblings, he was born in Bow in London's East End to a staunchly working-class household.

"My mother took great pains to have us kept beautifully clean and dressed because she didn't want people to know how poor we were," he said.

Following his departure from school, he worked in advertising before securing a scholarship to drama college and quickly became part of a group of thrilling, genuine young performers who embodied the rebellious spirit of the era - even sharing accommodation with Michael Caine.

"Once Albert Finney and Peter O'Toole and others had broken through, that was what people wanted," he said. "They didn't mind if you had a real working-class accent or attitude. You didn't have to pretend that you were middle-class any more.

"These days the fame is of first importance, whereas in the 1960s it was the craft that was of first importance."

Following his electrifying turn as the titular Billy Budd, he achieved enormous stardom through a string of critically acclaimed films during the decade, including The Collector (which earned him Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival), Ken Loach's Poor Cow, and Far From The Madding Crowd.

However, after the collapse of his high-profile romance with Shrimpton, Stamp retreated from the spotlight at the close of the 1960s, abandoning Swinging London and journeying to India to explore yoga and experience a "spiritual awakening".

It wasn't until 1978 and his portrayal of supervillain General Zod in Superman, appearing alongside Marlon Brando, that he once again captured headlines for his acting prowess.

The impact of his time in India's spiritual tranquillity endures, nevertheless.

Vanished is the womanising rebel of yesteryear: in his later years Terence Stamp abstained from alcohol, maintained a strict vegetarian diet and continued his daily yoga practice.

"I am in good health. My body knows how long it has been here, though. It doesn't matter how much yoga I do, the body has been here for a long time, it's nearer 80 years than 70. It's pride and vanity that enables me to stay with a body not dictating to the mind.

"I know a lot of actors just can't. They get addicted to the sherbet [alcohol] and to the food in the same way. And I feel those things but I've always regarded my body as an Aston Martin.

"My only ambition is to die healthy like a lot of the fakirs and dervishes I met in the East. Death happens to everybody and it's going to happen to me and it could happen any time.

"I'm very famous now in a way that has only been true over the past 10 years in the sense that I get recognised a lot on the street. The nice reason is that the British appreciate longevity. And the ordinary reason is a lot of my movies are on the box now.

"When people come up to me it's no longer a drag. They want to say hello. Guys want to tell their mums they've met me because their mums love me."