Jacqueline Bisset says men don't want to have sex with older women

The actress said age doesn't affect the female sex drive

Jacqueline Bisset at the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards in January (Getty)

British actress Jacqueline Bisset has suggested that the sex lives of older women are curtailed by male desire.

The 69-year-old, who made her name in films including The Sweet Ride and The Deep, said society often wrongly depicts women of a certain age as not wanting sex, while men continue to indulge in erotic encounters into old age.

“Older women continue to want sex, they're horny, they want to connect. But the men don't want to sleep with those women,” Bisset told The Guardian.

And she said men are “encouraged” to flaunt their sexuality first and foremost.

“I think there are men who can handle quite a few women at once, and do. I hear of people who've had three families. It seems amazing that they have time,” she said.

“Lots of men encourage people to be like that. They hang around and go to bars and stuff and there's no respect for women there. I don't even know if these guys like women.”

She said: “It's all self-glorification, narcissism, probably a terrible self-loathing and desperate insecurity. Needing to prove all the time. Never content with the one person viewing them with love. Checking they're still attractive, especially as they get older.”

But she added: “Women feel that too – needing that extra little wink from somebody.”

However, Bisset suggested that women are more affected emotionally by the fall-outs from their relationships.

“I think most women have been through some sort of agony with this stuff. It can destroy your life completely. I think where there's a great deal of love a lot of excuses are made. Because it's so rare to love somebody,” she said.

Bisset made the remarks while discussing her role in Abel Ferrara's Welcome to New York, where she plays the wife of Gérard Depardieu’s powerful businessman.

The film, which is loosely based on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair, was released straight to video-on-demand in France and has been panned by critics in the country.

Strauss-Khan reportedly plans to sue the makers of the film, which is allegedly based on his arrest for rape in New York in 2011.

Strauss-Kahn was cleared of alleged rape in September 2011. He has admitted to committing a “moral fault” and having a sexual encounter but has always denied that any attack took place.