Britt Ekland is terrified of contracting Alzheimer's disease like her late mother, as she would rather die than live with the condition.

The 70-year-old Bond girl has revealed her mum struggled with dementia for years before her death at the age of 78, and Ekland fears she will face the same fate.

The actress is scared her mother's Alzheimer's disease will be hereditary, and she is adamant she does not want to suffer in the same way.

She tells Britain's Seven magazine, "(Alzheimer's disease) is too horrible for words. My mum got it in her fifties and was 78 when she died. That makes no sense. The rest of her was incredibly healthy. If that happened to me, I would will myself dead. I would say, 'I want to die, I want to die,' and he upstairs (God) would have to listen to me... It would be horrifying if my kids kept me alive like we kept my mum... I never thought I would live beyond 40 because I thought 40 was very old."