it was nice while it lasted

Then an unknown actress, Gillian was being wined and dined at a restaurant by a boyfriend she had been dating in Los Angeles for several months. “Suddenly he asked me to marry him,” Gillian recalls, "and he presented me with a ring while the waiters and other diners looked on.

“I should have said no. I didn’t want to marry him. But how could I, when every was watching me and willing me to accept? So I said yes, but it was stupid because, looking back, I was simply accepting the marriage proposal just to please the waiters.

“It was only when I went to Vancouver to film The X Files that I realized it was all a mistake. It was the first time I’d been away from him and could think clearly. I realised I wasn’t meant to be this man’s wife and I put a stop to any wedding.”

Ernst Haas (1921-1986)

Untitled, New York, 1952

Khadija Adams for Elle France.