Dating older women more fun: Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter believes it is "more fun" for a man to date an older woman.

The 53-year-old actor, who is currently in a relationship with writer Rye Dag Holmboe, said people are slightly "frightened" of older women but her boyfriend is not one of them.

"Everybody ages at a different rate. My boyfriend is unbelievably mature. He's an old soul in a young body, what more could I want? People are slightly frightened of older women, but he isn't. Women can be very powerful when they're older.

"Why can't we be sexually and romantically attractive just when our eggs are expired? Actually it's much more fun because we're so freed of the terror, there is no consequence, it's all just for fun," Carter told The Times of Holmboe, who is 32.

The actor said her boyfriend has already forged a healthy relationship with her children -- Billy, 16, and Nell, 11, whom she shares with former partner, filmmaker Tim Burton.

"The person who's being introduced, they've got to do the work too. It won't work unless the other person realises he's got to have different, separate relationships with the children as well.

"One thing about my boyfriend, he's always thought he mustn't represent a loss to my children, they mustn't think his presence means they're going to lose their mum on some level. He's tried to forge - and very successfully - his own relationship with them and not be another father," she said.

Carter said her children "don't need" another father.

"Tim is such a one-off - and actually Rye is such a one-off. That's the rich thing about divorce, it doesn't have to be catastrophic because as long as they know they're loved and they've got an essential sense of self, a lot about life is trying to deal with lots of people," she said.