Hayley Mills Turns 80 — Inside Her Surprising Life After Disney Fame

Hayley Mills attends the — Theo Wargo/Getty Images

What To Know

Hayley Mills turns 80 in 2026 and remains an iconic figure from her early stardom in the 1960s.
Her personal life drew attention due to high-profile relationships.
Despite losing most of her Disney earnings to high UK taxes, Mills sustained a diverse acting career.

Hayley Mills turns 80 on April 18, 2026, and for many of us, she’ll always be the child star known for roles in Disney films The Parent Trap and Pollyanna. During the early 1960s, she was one of the most recognizable young stars in the world, and those two films made her a household name. For a time, she was one of the most popular actresses in both the United States and Britain. While she seemed like a bright young star, her personal life was a bit more tumultuous.

As she got older, Mills began taking on more mature roles, and her personal life started to draw attention in the tabloids. While working on The Family Way in 1966, she met director Roy Boulting. She was 20 at the time, and he was 53. The two eventually married in 1971, and their relationship became one of the most talked-about aspects of her life. They divorced in 1977, and years later, Mills’ personal life took a very different turn.

In 1997, she began a long-term relationship with actor and writer Firdous Bamji, who is about 20 years younger than her. The two met while performing in The King and I, and they have remained together since then, largely keeping their relationship private. Interestingly enough, her sister, Juliet Mills, is also known for being in an age-gap relationship. She married actor Maxwell Caulfield in 1980, and Caulfield is significantly younger than Juliet.

27th January 1973: Hayley Mills and husband film producer Roy Boulting (1913 - 2001) with their newly born son, Crispian John David as they left Queen Charlotte Hospital, Hammersmith. Crispian later became lead singer with pop group Kula Shaker

Central Press/Getty Images

One of the most significant turning points in Mills’ life happened financially. By the time she turned 21, she had earned a substantial amount from her Disney films. However, due to the high tax rates in the United Kingdom at the time, she lost most of those earnings. In her memoir, she recalled the moment her lawyer explained the situation, according to KoiMoi: “Well, my dear, basically, the Revenue have attacked your trust company. They’re going to tax you at the full rate: 91 percent of the entire trust.” She later described the loss in even more direct terms, writing, “The state had plundered my trust like a horde of pirates.” The situation dragged on through legal appeals, including a temporary ruling in her favor, before ultimately being overturned, leaving her without the fortune she had expected to gain from her early success.

After leaving Disney, she continued acting but moved into a wider range of roles. She appeared in films like The Trouble with Angels and later built a steady career in television and theater. In the UK, she became known to a new generation through the series Wild at Heart, which ran from 2007 to 2012. In more recent years, Mills has continued working in select roles. She appeared in Last Train to Christmas in 2021 and had a supporting role in the 2024 film Trap, marking a career resurgence.