Why Harrison Ford took a new turn at 60

When Harrison Ford hit 60 he divorced his wife, donned an earring and starting dating an actress 23 years his junior, earning himself the inevitable sobriquet of "actor in a mid-life crisis".

But far from hanging his head in shame Ford, now 63, can't speak highly enough of his seventh decade of life, declaring that life begins at 60.

The Indiana Jones star said his 60th birthday had proved a major turning point for him and had made him reassess his life style.

In a rare interview about his private life, Ford, who once described his loss of privacy as "the actor's curse - part of a pact with the Devil", told Saga magazine: "I am not the first man who wanted to make changes in his life at 60 and I won't be the last. It is just that others can do it with anonymity."

Asked if he was going through a severe mid-life crisis, he admitted: "A lot of people might be asking that."

The star of such films as Blade Runner, The Fugitive and Star Wars previously shunned Hollywood parties and lived peacefully at his 800-acre ranch in Wyoming with his second wife, Melissa Mathison, and their two children.

But he explained: "I was interested in changing my life. I have always had the ability to change and to become other people through my acting. I took a good look at myself and decided that I wanted something different from the way I was living.

"That's not such a bad thing, is it? But, because of my past, I think it took a lot of people by surprise. They wondered what was happening to me. I was very much aware of what was happening. I'm living the way I want to live."

Ford now lives with Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart, who at 40 is 23 years his junior. They have been a couple since 2002 when he shocked Hollywood by leaving Matheson, the ET screenwriter whom he met on the set of Apocalypse Now.

At the time the pair, who apparently got together at the 2002 Golden Globes, were lambasted, with many media commentators prophesying that the union would never last. But the pair stuck together, even taking a holiday on a canal boat in Wales last summer and visiting the Llangollen Eisteddfod, an annual festival of music and dance.

Ford, who has four children and two grandchildren, did not rule out having more children in the future. He is currently helping to bring up Flockhart's three-year-old adopted son, Liam.

Ford said: "I am quite happy with all that. It's fun to be around young kids. I have a couple of grandchildren with my older boys and perhaps there are already enough youngsters in my life. But you never know."

The action hero has signed up to appear in a fourth Indiana Jones film and said he was determined to do his own stunts despite his age.

"I have picked up plenty of bumps, bruises and cuts over the years. I have injured a shoulder and torn a hamstring - that sort of thing. But I have got so used to taking a battering, on screen as in life, that I feel anything is possible," he said.

- INDEPENDENT