Dame Julie Andrews has confirmed that she is stepping away from on-screen acting at the age of 90, revealing that she repeatedly turned down invitations to reprise her beloved role as Queen Clarisse Renaldi in The Princess Diaries 3.
The legendary actress, who starred opposite Anne Hathaway in the original 2001 film and its 2004 sequel, disclosed that the production team had approached her throughout last year in hopes she would join the new instalment.
“I think I’m retired, really, would be about the best description for that,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
“They asked me all last year if I would be keen to do it. It was very, very hard to say ‘no,’ but I did because I thought I had a wonderful ride.”
Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway in 2004
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Despite acknowledging the difficulty of her decision, Ms Andrews expressed confidence that the third film would thrive in her absence.
“This one I felt would flourish very well and wouldn’t need Granny going in there at my age,” she explained.
Speaking separately to TODAY.com, she was equally candid about her reasoning.
“I’m not going to be in it,” she said. “It’s too late for me to do it.”
The 90-year-old made clear that the franchise rightly belongs to Ms Hathaway’s character
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The 90-year-old made clear that the franchise rightly belongs to Ms Hathaway’s character going forward.
“I think the story has to continue in Princess Mia,” she said. “It’s her story. It’s not really mine.”
Ms Andrews did, however, clarify that she has not stepped back from work entirely, noting that she remains occupied with writing books, podcasts and voiceover projects.
Her career has stretched across more than eight decades, beginning with her 1964 film debut in Mary Poppins alongside Dick Van Dyke, which earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway filming The Princess Diaries in 2001
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The following year, she took the lead in The Sound of Music, receiving another Oscar nomination for the role.
Among her many honours are seven Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, two Grammys and three Tony nominations. Queen Elizabeth II appointed her a Dame in 2000.
Her final appearance in front of the camera came in 2010, when she played the head fairy in Tooth Fairy opposite Dwayne Johnson. Since then, the vast majority of her professional output has been voice work.
She continues to voice the enigmatic Lady Whistledown in Netflix’s Bridgerton, a role she has held across all four series since 2020.
Julie Andrews in 2022
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That performance earned her the Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance prize at the 2025 Creative Arts Emmys.
“I do it mostly to keep my brain alive,” she said of the work, which she records from home.
Meanwhile, Ms Hathaway — who is producing the third Princess Diaries film — announced the project on Instagram in October 2024 with the words “The fairytale continues.”
She had previously told Entertainment Tonight that she would have gone to great lengths to accommodate Andrews, even offering to film around her with a green screen.
The new script is said to take the story in a fresh direction, with author Meg Cabot describing it as “amazing.”