Hayley Mills, the beloved British actress who charmed the world as the innocent twins in Disney’s 1961 classic “The Parent Trap,” has stunned fans with a raw and startling admission: she truly hated her co-star Brian Keith more than anyone she had ever met. In a series of candid interviews that have surfaced this week, Mills, now 78, revealed that the warm father-daughter chemistry audiences adored on screen masked a deeply fraught and intimidating working relationship that left her terrified and humiliated as a teenager.
“I was only a teenager when we made ‘The Parent Trap,’” Mills recalled, her voice still carrying the weight of those long-ago emotions. “Brian was tough. Really tough.
He had a temper, and he didn’t soften it just because I was a child. He could be very intimidating.” The actress, born Helatharine Rose Vivian Mills on April 18, 1946, in London, grew up surrounded by the gentleness of her actor father Sir John Mills and the nurturing direction of Walt Disney himself.
That gentle world shattered when she faced Keith’s gruff, alpha-male intensity on set.
Mills described a specific moment that crystallized her hatred. “There was one day when I couldn’t get a line right,” she said. “Brian slammed his hand on the table and muttered something under his breath.
I just froze. I remember thinking, ‘I hate him. I absolutely hate him.’
It wasn’t that I really hated him as a person. It was that I was scared, humiliated, and didn’t know how to process those feelings. But in that moment, yes, I hated him more than anyone I’d ever met.”
The revelation comes as a shock to generations who grew up watching the sunny, optimistic film. Mills, who shot to global fame after Walt Disney cast her in “Pollyanna” in 1960, was already a household name when she took on the dual role of Sharon and Susan in “The Parent Trap.” The technical challenge of acting against herself was demanding enough, but the emotional toll of working with Keith made it a nightmare.
“I used to dread certain scenes because I knew he’d expect me to be perfect,” she admitted. “I felt like I was constantly walking on eggshells. He wasn’t like Walt Disney who would always find a kind way to correct you.
Brian would bark, and that bark stayed with me for a long time.”
Keith, then in his late 30s, came from a world of television westerns and war movies where toughness was the norm. Mills later recognized that his behavior stemmed from his own pressure and professionalism. “As I got older, I realized he was under enormous pressure, too,” she said.
“Brian wasn’t trying to be cruel. He just wanted the work to be good. He’d come from a completely different world where you didn’t baby people.
You just got on with it.” But at the time, the young actress had no such perspective. She felt constantly judged and inadequate, and the on-screen warmth that audiences saw was a testament to her acting skill rather than genuine affection.
The irony, Mills noted, is that their on-screen connection made audiences believe the two shared a special friendship. “That’s the magic of acting,” she said. “People saw love and warmth, and in some ways it was there buried under all the tension.
He did care about me, but he had a hard time showing it.” When filming wrapped, Mills felt an overwhelming sense of relief. “I remember feeling like I could breathe again.
I didn’t have to worry about his moods or his sharp tongue.”
Mills’s career had begun almost by accident when she was just 12, cast in the 1959 film “Tiger Bay” alongside her father. Her natural, emotional performance earned her a BAFTA award for most promising newcomer. Then Disney’s notice changed everything.
“Pollyanna” made her a star, and a special juvenile Academy Award cemented her status. She became the face of innocence and hope for the 1960s, a role she played beautifully even when her personal life was far more complicated.
Her later years saw her break away from the Disney image. In 1966, while filming “The Family Way,” she met director Roy Boulting, who was 33 years her senior. Their relationship sparked public controversy, but Mills was drawn to his intelligence and experience.
They married in 1971 and had a son, Crispian Mills, who later found fame as the lead singer of the band Kula Shaker. The marriage ended in divorce in 1977, but Mills remained close to Boulting for their son’s sake. She later had a second son, Jason Lawson, with actor Roy Lawson.
Through it all, Mills continued to work in film, television, and theater, taking on roles that showcased her growth. She earned critical praise for performances in “The King and I,” “Dial M for Murder,” and “Pride and Prejudice.” Her personal journey from child star to independent woman was marked by resilience and emotional depth.
Since 1997, she has been in a stable, contented relationship with actor Roy Bamji, living away from the media glare.
But it is the confession about Brian Keith that has reignited public interest in her story. Keith, who died in 1997, left a complicated legacy in Mills’s memory. “When I heard he had passed away, I cried,” she confessed.
“I didn’t expect to, but I did. I realized that underneath that gruff exterior was a man who truly loved his craft, and in some strange way, he probably loved me, too. Though neither of us could have admitted that back then.”
Today, Mills looks back with gratitude. “He terrified me,” she said. “But he also helped make me a better actress.
Sometimes the people who challenge us the most are the ones who shape us the most deeply.” Her honest reflections reveal a more complex truth about Hollywood’s golden image. The young girl who once truly hated him more than anyone eventually came to see her old co-star not as a villain, but as a mentor in disguise—one whose rough lessons helped her become the strong, mature performer the world would continue to admire for decades.
This breaking revelation forces a reexamination of one of cinema’s most cherished family films. Mills’s story is a reminder that behind every smiling performance, there can be hidden pain, fear, and ultimately, growth. As she continues to live quietly with Bamji, her legacy as an actress and as a woman who transformed hatred into understanding stands as a powerful testament to the human spirit.
