Saltcoats woman reveals Sean Connery was her first childhood sweetheart

Eve Stenhouse, 84, spent a summer in Portobello where Sir Sean was a lifeguard at the time.

The pair were part of a group of young weightlifters, wrestlers and gymnasts that hung out together around the pool.

Only 17-years-old at the time, Eve was not one to hang out with boys or go drinking, but the attention of the ‘striking’ young man and the safe surroundings of the pool led them to strike up a intimate friendship.

She said: “I think the most striking things were his eyes and mannerisms.

“He didn’t suffer fools gladly. He never criticised anybody, he just let folk live and if anyone said something he stood up for people.”

On one occasion, Eve arrived by the pool wearing a newly purchased black swimming costume with white fringes.

She thought it was lovely, but the other girls burst out laughing and one said ‘here comes Annie Oakley’, a reference to the star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show who sported frills on her dress.

Eve grabbed the fringe at the bottom of her swimsuit and tore it off.

She said: “Sean came up and he put his arm around me.

“He said, ‘Eve, you go right home and sew that back on’, and I did.”

Sir Sean, who would have been 22 or 23-years-old at the time, had done some modelling and asked Eve if he could introduce her to a photographer friend.

Eve declined but let the acting legend photograph her himself, standing by the poolside.

A few years later, Eve was married and had a daughter. She remembers watching television one evening and a film about Quakers and witches came on and she instantly recognised one of the actors.

She said: “I couldn’t believe it was him, on television. I told my husband that we used to muck about in the swimming pool.

“He loved tomboys, which I was. He couldn’t stand the sissy girls.

“I’ve never forgotten him, he made an impression on me.”

Many years later, Eve was working as a swimming instructor at the Gleneagles Hotel when an important shooting event was on.

She found herself in the bar along with Princess Anne’s ex-husband Mark Philips, a famous rugby player and Sean Connery.

Although she did not get a chance to speak with him, she always wished she had said: “Hey big man, do you remember me?

“But I doubt it very much.”

When she first heard the sad news of Sir Sean’s passing on October 31, Eve was not initially upset but when she looked out the old photos of her time in Portobello she found herself crying.

“I looked at his photos and I was filling up.

“He was a big handsome lad, I always maintained that he was my first boyfriend.

“Anytime we went anywhere he took my hand.”