Notting Hill star Rhys Ifans turns his back on Britain for simple life on Majorca farm

THE Welsh actor Rhys Ifans who caught the world's attention when he played the role of Hugh Grant's flat mate in the blockbuster film Notting Hill has apparently turned his back on Britain and is spending more and more time on a farm he has bought here on the island.

Three years ago, Ifans shot the comedy Four Last Songs on the island alongside Stanley Tucci and Hugh Bonneville and admits to having spent an increasing amount of time on the island and has fallen in love with the place.

The Notting Hill star admits to having fallen in love with the holiday hotspot many years ago and started spending more time there than his adopted London, so he decided to set up home.

And Ifans insists the rural life in the sun suits him perfectly.
The actor told WENN this week, “I live in Majorca. I've been going there for years for vacation and I just realised, ‘Why don't I live there?' It's only an hour and a half away from London and it's a beautiful, beautiful place to live. “I just wanted to get out of the big city for a bit because I'm not really a city boy; I grew up in the country in a small town (in Wales). “I have four chickens and that's my staff. It's a very small farm, more of a zoo actually! I eat their eggs and then I kill them at Christmas. I choke them, I pluck their feathers and everything,” he revealed.

HOWARD MARKS

Ironically, Ifans stars as the infamous drugs smuggler Howard Marks who lived in the Palma suburb of La Vileta which is where he was finally arrested in a major operation involving the Spanish and American police and narcotics authorities and Mr Nice is currently in post production and is due to be released in October.

He was briefly lead vocalist of the Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals, a big favourite of Howard Marks, before they found national success and has also revealed that he was a pen pal of Marks while the drugs dealer was in jail in the United States.

Ifans has admitted that he was an impressionable teenager when he first learned about fellow Welshman Marks - and became an instant fan and pen pal.
The star recalls, “He was a Welsh speaker and I saw him on the news and he was supplying the world with pot, which, at the time, I guess, was appealing to me. I would write, ‘Hello, I'm in school. I'm bored. This is more boring than prison. I know how you feel...' - that kind of teenage stuff. “When he came out of prison and wrote Mr. Nice we had a conversation when I was a teenager and I said, ‘One day when they make a film out of this, can I play you?,‘ and lo and behold it happened last year,· he told contactmusic.com. “It's come full circle completely, so it was really an amazing experience, playing a friend and getting to discover stuff. He had a great life but a tough one as well. Of course now I've seen - and he's seen - the folly of his ways.” The Welsh star from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire is also going to be starting the two next installments of the Harry Potter saga as Xenophilius Lovegood which he has already begun filming.