Idris Elba has come clean about dating an older woman when he was 14, who had no idea she was romancing a toy boy.

The Mandela star even went as far as driving himself to school to keep up the charade, telling her he was off to work each morning.

According to the Daily Mirror, he said: "I actually had a girlfriend when I was about 14. She was 19. It was a good life, man. She didn't know I was 14.

"Her name was Judith. She was lovely, she was beautiful."

Idris explained that he would tell his parents he was having a sleepover at a friend's house: "In the morning I would say, 'I'm going to work.' I'd drive off, and I'm actually going to school.

"I remember one time I had some homework I had to take care of and I was around at her house. And she was like, 'Why do you have this homework?' And I was like, 'Uh, my boss makes me do his children's homework'."

Idris has been shooting his new film, A Hundred Streets, in London alongside a cast including Samantha Barks, Gemma Arterton, Emma Rigby, Tom Cullen and Kierston Wareing.