These celebs are redefining what it means to be in your 60s – and I am loving it
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If you do a Reddit-specific search on Google for “At what age did you consider yourself ‘old’?” you will quickly realise just how subjective age is.
There are people who say they are in their 70s and still not feeling in the least bit old; there are people in their 40s who say they do.
(And then there are the Gen Zs freaking out about turning 25, but let’s just politely ignore them.)
An objective standard for old age?
If we are looking for a kind of objective standard for the border between middle- and old age, then I’d probably pitch at 65. At this age, you’ll probably be entitled to retire and claim a pension and become eligible for things like MediCare, discounts for the elderly and free bus passes. These are the classic markers of old age.
Still – 65 in 2025 doesn’t look like it did in times gone by. My first memories of my grandparents in the 1980s must have been when they were in their mid-60s and they seemed ancient compared to the spritely 65-year-olds I know today! Granted, they lived through a war and didn’t enjoy the standard of healthcare that we have today for most of their lives. That stuff matters – but so does mentality and outlook on life and I’m sure that’s also a big factor in the vitality of many 21st century sexagenarians.
It figures that a record number of them are now delaying retirement. Why should they be forced to leave the workplace if they’ve got the knowledge, the energy and good health to keep on making a positive contribution to the world?
With life expectancy on the rise and people staying healthier and active for longer, I am certain: 65 can be the new 55.
The sexagenarian celebs making their 60s splendid
Although I’m loath to say that celebrities are good role models, there is no doubt that they have done a lot to blaze this particular trail and break down aging stereotypes.
These three stars might have some more aches, pains and wrinkles than they did when we first knew them. But being 60+ hasn’t meant fading out into a world of blue rinses, Tena pads and prostate troubles.
Quite the opposite: arriving in their 7th decade has been about breaking out and having a true renaissance. Rather than laying their careers to rest, they are opening new and exciting chapters, redefining their image – and still looking great.
Hugh Grant
In the 1990s, you couldn’t get away from Hugh Grant. Although he was working as an actor all through the 1980s, it was Richard Curtis’ 1994 runaway hit “Four Weddings and a Funeral” that truly made him a star – and a global heartthrob.
Yes, Hugh Grant is right up there with Colin Firth as the top 90s British sex symbol. There was something about that bumbling, floppy-haired toff type that Grant played to perfection that drove the British ladies wild and convinced everyone outside the UK that this was what all Englishmen were like. (They’re not.)
Personally, I didn’t get the appeal. I’ve never gone for that kind of foppish upper-crust male and therefore remained unmoved as Hugh went from film to film, never quite leaving that oh-so-English pigeonhole (despite the sordid Divine Brown episode).
The only time I registered even a flutter of attraction to Grant was when he played the prime minister in the 2003 film “Love, Actually“. I’d love to think that all British PMs can shimmy around No. 10 to the Pointer Sisters like he did. At this point, even semi-competent governance seems to be too big an ask.
Grant was truly excellent in the role, cementing his status as a beloved national treasure.
20 years later
For the next 20 years, I did not pay Hugh Grant much attention. Until Christmas 2024, when we watched the horror movie “Heretic”, in which he plays the lead role.
Yes, horror movie. How very un-Hugh, I thought. Wonder how this is going to work.
Very well, as it happened.
Gone are the floppy hair and boyish good looks: our Hugh is distinctly craggy these days. No stoop to the walk yet but the droopy folds of skin around the neck don’t lie: age has caught up with this icon of British film.
But it has also opened up a whole new vista in Hugh Grant’s career. We can see a range in his acting abilities that we never knew before, obscured as it was by all of those charming-yet-fuckwitted English chaps he was constantly playing in the 90s.
In “Heretic”, a totally unexpected side of him comes to the fore: chilling, unpredictable and malevolent. All while being awfully, awfully courteous. The Hugh we know shines through, making us feel simultaneously comforted and yet completely off balance. Was that there all the time?
Ever so polite – and yet ever so evil. Yes, I’m loving this new Hugh.
It’s thrilling – and kinda hot.
Demi Moore
Demi Moore was also impossible to overlook in the 1990s. Her emotional portrayal of a grieving young widow in the blockbuster Ghost alongside Patrick Swayze made her a star, although her most popular movies after that (Striptease, Disclosure, G.I. Jane) mainly involved stripping off or exposing her body in some way. Then there was THAT Vanity Fair cover while heavily pregnant with her 2nd daughter by the actor Bruce Willis in 1991.
Yes, Demi did have a lovely body. It was her biggest asset and she made sure we knew it.
After the turn of the millennium, Moore stepped back from the limelight to concentrate on raising her three daughters. During this phase, she drew more attention for her relationship with the US actor Ashton Kutcher, whom she married in 2005, than for her acting roles. Principally because Kutcher is 15 years Moore’s junior; a relationship structure which was still controversial at the time.
Personally, I credit Demi with moving age difference relationships where the woman is the older partner firmly out of “MILF-land” and onto the territory of “We Love Each Other And Have Fun, So Quit Judging”. Even though it didn’t work out in the long run – good for you, Demi. Respect.
Her finest hour
After divorcing Kutcher, Moore again dropped off the radar completely. Her career might have been over forever had she not been offered the lead role in Coralie Fargeat’s body horror movie “The Substance”. In it, Demi plays Elizabeth Sparkle, an aging star who starts taking black market drugs to release a younger version of herself after being fired by her agent for age-related reasons.
The movie is lurid, dark, audaciously dystopian – and impossible to look away from. It takes womens’ fears about aging and jacks them up to fever pitch. The part was made for the original body beautiful Moore, and she played it to perfection. Critics are saying this is her finest hour, and it’s hard to disagree.
With a Golden Globe for best actress in the bag already, Demi Moore is Hollywood’s comeback kid of the moment. Applause!
Trinny Woodall
In the 2000s, I did not like Trinny Woodall one little bit. With her TV “wife” Susannah Constantine, she hosted the style makeover series “What Not To Wear”. It was hugely popular and spawned several best-selling books which were translated into numerous languages and sold 3 million copies worldwide.
I’m sure that together, they did help some people to become their best style selves. But I was repelled by their snobby, haughty manner – pushing and prodding their makeover subjects around like cattle, casually grabbing body parts and gratuitously insulting them.
Basically, they made money out of humiliating women like me who, when it comes to style and clothes, don’t quite get it.
Furthermore, coming from a far lower strata in Britain’s notorious class system, I couldn’t help but resent these two reedy-voiced and privileged poshos who looked down on us peasants with a mix of comfortable superiority and mirth.
I thought they could do one.
Later. Much later…
Then I left the UK and forgot all about Trinny and Susannah. I assumed that they’d done what most products of British girls’ boarding schools do: marry rich men and proceed to spend their lives floating around some country estate or other, sporting Barbours and holding onto a stiff G&T like their lives depend upon it.
That seems to describe Susannah’s life quite well – she’s been married to Danish businessman Sten Bertelsen since 1995. They have three grown up kids and live on a massive estate in Sussex. Good for Susannah.
Trinny’s been through a few more twists and turns. She married entrepreneur Johnny Eliachoff in 1999. They divorced in 2009 having both battled addictions and Eliachoff committed suicide in 2014. As if that wasn’t difficult enough, the divorce settlement threw up complicated questions of how debts are handled after divorce. Woodall was suddenly faced with the possibility of having to stump up around GBP 300,000 to cover debts her former husband had left behind. Fortunately for her, the High Court decided that she did not.
Woodall went on to date the advertising mogul Charles Saatchi, 20 years her senior. They split in 2023, with friends of Woodall claiming that their age difference had started to strain on the relationship.
She is currently single but busier than ever, thanks to her new business venture.
Starting over at 53
In 2017, aged 53, Woodall founded Trinny London, a company selling high-end cosmetics and skincare products. The venture was born at her kitchen table and was financed by the sale of her home as well as some of the outfits she’d worn on TV over the years.
It’s been a massive success. Just 8 years down the line, Trinny London has over 1 million customers worldwide, annual sales of $ 72m and a string of awards for their products. Trinny has fully embraced social media and life as an influencer, producing a never-ending stream of content to keep her fans updated on her outfits and makeup tips.
Watch this interview with Forbes and admire her no-nonsense approach and boundless enthusiasm!
At 60, Trinny’s looking better than ever. Over Christmas, she wowed the press and bagged herself a gazillion positive column inches by turning up to an event with arms as toned and taut as a rock climber’s – the result of working with a personal trainer. New Year was celebrated in typically glamorous style with her friend Elizabeth Hurley cruising down the Nile. Photos made available for the public of course…
Trinny Woodall is 60 and sizzling. She’s riding high…and the whole world needs to know!
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Related articles:
Building a new career in your 40s – this much I know
Feel-good films to lift you out of the doldrums
The vein on my arm and the unconscious need to “be ladylike”
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Image: Generated using NightCafé