She is hailed as a national treasure, the queen of stage and screen with a lady to match. But Dame Judi Dench revealed that her pet parrot has a much less polite name for her: “Slut.”
The Oscar-winning actor, who turns 90 next week, said everyone should have a bird like her rescue African gray parrot, Sweetie, despite their foul language.
“We just had a long conversation. You don’t have to ask what she says. She says, ‘You’re a slut,’ ‘You’re a slob,’ Dame Judy told the Sunday Times.
“She said ‘Boris Johnson’ but she didn’t get it from me. She is listening to the radio. God, but she’s funny. She is very, very funny. Everyone should have a parrot or myna bird. Their voices are absolutely amazing.”
Dench previously revealed how her parrot, which tried and failed to learn Shakespeare, once insulted her housekeeper.
“The parrot was given to me and it didn’t speak for a long time,” she said earlier this year. “Then she suddenly said to Barbara, who comes to see me three times a week, ‘You’re scum.’
Her grandson’s friend also fell victim to the dirty bird when she said she was wearing thermal underwear, prompting Sweetie to remark, “Slut.”
“Honestly, it’s true,” Dench said. “I don’t know how she learned the time.”
The multiple Olivier award-winning actor said she received the “adorable” parrot for Christmas during the Covid-19 pandemic. She told Louis Theroux that he “wouldn’t be without her for anything in the world” in an interview with his documentary series in 2022
Dench told the Sunday Times she wasn’t going to dwell on her upcoming birthday on December 9th. “You just get a little nervous when everybody says 90. I don’t want to think too much about 90, I’ll think about [turning] 29,” she said.
