Liam Neeson's 2-word response after meeting future girlfriend Helen Mirren

As celebrity couples have come and gone over the years, few people remember a time when Liam Neeson and Dame Helen Mirren were a serious item. However, the two shared four years together a long time ago.

Almost 40 years after they called it quits, the legendary actors reconciled on a talk show, where they came clean about their romance.

Neeson dated Academy Award-winning actress Dame Helen Mirren for around four years, out of the spotlight. The pair dated and lived together in the early 1980s, in the early days of their respective careers. Though their flame eventually went out, the two seem to have nothing but love and admiration for each other.

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“You two actually dated,” host Graham Norton pointed out, and was promptly corrected by Mirren who said, “We didn’t date, we lived together.”

“For four years,” Neeson added.

Neeson then launched into an explanation of how their relationship came to be , after the two met while both working on the 1981 film Excalibur. Mirren played the powerful enchantress Morgana Le Fay, while Neeson had a small role as Sir Gawain.

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“I remember being on the set and standing with [co-star] Ciarán Hinds as Helen walked towards us dressed in her full Morgana Le Fey costume and we both went, ‘Oh f*ck,’” Neeson recalled. “I was smitten. I think Ciarán was too, but I was very smitten!”

The sentimental anecdote warmed the room and apparently Mirren herself who seemed surprised, saying: “I never knew that. You’ve never told me that before. It’s amazing.”

Neeson also noted how he realized Mirren also had feelings for him.

“Before I met her and we worked together, I had read somewhere that if she fancied a guy she would imitate his walk behind his back,” he said, “and I turned around one day and she was doing that to me.”

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