He may be a grumpy little scamp, but Rhys Ifans ain't half hilarious when he wants to be. The gruff Welshman has finally spilled the beans on a rumour that has been kicking around for years.

Notting (Penc)Hill: Rhys Ifans in the 1999 hit comedy Notting Hill

Ifans apparently destroyed Julia Roberts's juicer while on the set of 1999's Notting Hill. And, after a decade of keeping schtum, he finally confessed to just how he went about it.

The 40-year-old says he began idly playing with Julia's juicer just off the set, and became strangely obsessed by it. He revealed: "She was the first person I ever met who owned a juicer.

"When we were shooting Notting Hill, she had a juicer off the set, and I was just fascinated by this thing. You just stick a carrot in it and it would disappearand turn into juice. Where I'm from that's magic."

But Rhys couldn't help fiddling with the contraption, and soon found himself in a situation worthy of his daft Notting Hill character Spike.

Recounting his tale to Radio 1's Edith Bowman, he added: "But I absent-mindedly put a pencil in it, just as she was coming off set."

Don't ask us (or him) why he decided to do such a thing, but the juicer devoured it.

He added: "All I had in my hand was this little rubber with a bit of brass around it, and she went, 'Oh, is that my juice?'. And she just ate this... thing full of twigs, and I just didn't have the face to tell her."

We bet that must have tasted a little coarse. More Gritty Woman than Pretty Woman.

Rhys has kept his secret from Julia, who played the lead role of Anna Scott in the hit Richard Curtis comedy, for 10 years.

Now that the cat's out of the bag, he sheepishly added: "Of course now she knows..."