Sir Sean Connery`s ex-wife talks about `the calm before the storm`

Sir Sean Connery's ex-wife has described their honeymoon period as "the calm before the storm" - reports the Daily Record.

Diane Cilento told of happy times when they lived a normal life before the James Bond phenomenon made the 007 actor a world famous star.

Cilento, who wed Connery in 1962, said: "Even though Sean had done Dr No, no one thought the James Bond thing would be so colossal.

"Things were still normal. In Rome, we could be anonymous and didn't get jumped on when we left the house. It was the calm before the storm."

They were regarded as one of the world's most glamorous couples, but then came the split in 1973 and with it, accusations of violence which Connery has always denied.

Australian-born Cilento, 72, has fond memories of their time in Rome, when she was filming The Agony and The Ecstasy.

She said: "We were living in a beautiful big villa near Via Appia.

"My mother and father were staying with us. It was a wonderful time. Sean wasn't doing much and used to play golf.

"We were pretty close knit as a family. I'm a good cook."

Cilento was to leave Connery but in an interview in an Australian magazine she now recalls fondly the time they spent together.

She said: "We taught each other a lot and I think we were married through the most potent times of our lives.

"I mean "potent" in every sense of the word.

"I met Sean when I was 24 and knew him as a friend, fellow student, colleague, lover and partner over the next 15 years."

In her new autobiography, My Nine Lives, Cilento claims Connery took mind-bending LSD to help cope with his Bond fame.

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