Michael Caine is grateful he sowed his wild oats. In 1972, Caine divorced his first wife, actress Patricia Haines, to marry Shakira Baksh, a former beauty contestant from Guyana who had starred with him in The Man Who Would Be King.

"Our marriage works because we are such true partners," says Caine.

"It would be difficult to extricate ourselves from each other.

"It also helped that I had led a life before I got married.

"I didn't marry my high-school sweetheart and then wonder what else was out there. I knew what was out there and had sampled it."

Caine recently received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as the kindly but guilt-ridden abortion doctor in The Cider House Rules.

Caine refuses to consider his chances for an Oscar nomination.

"Actors are superstitious people by nature," he says. "We don't want to talk about award nominations before they come for fear we might jinx them."


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