Helena Bonham Carter says dating older women is 'more fun': 'There is no consequence'

Helena Bonham Carter has said that her relationship with boyfriend Rye Dag Holmboe, who is 21 years her junior, is "more fun" because she is an older woman.

The 53-year-old says that there is "no consequence" for her and Holmboe, 32, because of her age.

"People are slightly frightened of older women, but he isn’t," she told the Sunday Times. "Women can be very powerful when they’re older. Why can’t we be sexually and romantically attractive just when our eggs are expired?

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"Actually it’s much more fun because we’re so freed of the terror, there is no consequence, it’s all just for fun.”

It comes as Bonham Carter will be seen taking over from Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret in The Crown when it returns to Netflix for its third season later this month.

In preparation for her role as the monarch's sister she spoke with Roddy Llewellyn, the amateur gardener who was 17 years younger than Princess Margaret and a regular fixture in her Mystique home.

Their relationship will feature in The Crown, with Bonham Carter noting it was "odd timing" to be portraying a companionship with such an age-gap while having one of her own in real life.

“It’s strange, though. It was odd timing that I seem to have a similar age gap as her, but I think it would have happened whether I was playing her or not," she said.

Bonham Carter was previously in a long-term relationship with film maker Tim Burton, 61, with whom she shares two children, Nell, 16, and Billy, 11.

They split in 2014 having been together since 2001 when they met while filming Planet Of The Apes.