Dame Helen Mirren has revealed that she never had children because, as a schoolgirl, she was traumatised by an educational childbirth film.

The Oscar-winning actress said she was left so distressed by the graphic film, shown to her as a teenager, that 50 years later she remains disgusted by childbirth.

Appearing on Australian television show Enough Rope, the 62-year-old told interviewer Andrew Denton that she saw the film at a stage where she was becoming self-conscious about her body and aware of interaction between the sexes. Having had no previous sex education, her convent school class was bussed to a boys’ school for a lesson on reproduction.

"They sat us all down, boys and girls, all about 13-14 years old, in this horrible school hall.”

A doctor then showed the students a close-up film of a woman having a baby, telling them: "Giving birth is one of the most beautiful things."

“These are 13 year-old boys and girls who can’t look at each other anyway, and it’s bloody and it’s disgusting, and then occasionally a little subtitle comes up, because there’s no soundtrack, [and] it says: ‘Now prepare the rubber sheet’.”

Two boys fainted and were carried out of the room. The actress looked away, but said she can still hear the whir of the projector.

"I swear it traumatised me to this day. I haven't had children and now I can't look at anything to do with childbirth. It absolutely disgusts me."

Asked if the film was the reason she never became a mother, Dame Helen replied: "I think it's a lot to do with it, I think in deep, proper psychological terms I was traumatised."

The star of The Queen also said she was not a “motherly sort of person” and, although after 15 years together she wedAmerican film director Taylor Hackford, struggled with the concept of marriage.

"I still don't quite see the point of marriage,” she said. “I don't talk about this from a religious point of view or a moral point of view, but I absolutely did not see the point of getting married and getting divorced. So I really didn't want to get married.”

However, Dame Helen said that she is now pleased she tied the knot. "No question, from the moment I woke up after I was married, I realised that I loved it."

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