“Embrace that milestone,” is the message from TV cook Nigella Lawson, who turns 60 today.
In an interview for today’s Daily Mail she said: “I wanted to be open about my age to stop myself ever being able to lie about it! I had been brought up, as many women are, to feel getting old was something to be ashamed of.
“I knew it was something I had to resist – and resist I do. But even without thinking that getting old is a personal failing, it takes some getting used to.”
I couldn’t have put it better myself and it’s great to hear. From a man’s perspective it had never occurred to me to think of ageing as a personal failing but the milestone is important from a health, wealth, choice and voice perspective, I would say. For a woman I guess the feeling of failure is to do with looks?
Here, I suspect, Nigella has little to worry about looking as good as she does and with a reputed £15 million in the bank.
She’s an intriguing celebratory who comes from a privileged background – her dad is the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, now Baron Lawson of Blaby – and yet is a success in her own right. Her cooking programmes are all about fun and pleasure and yet she has suffered great tragedy in her life having lost her mum, sister and a husband to cancer.
The domestic goddess is a hugely successful media personality yet has a shy, doe-eyed, coquettish presenting style. She was once named as one of the world’s most beautiful women but can apparently get away with eating whatever she likes.
She’s not been a stranger to controversy either yet remains hugely popular: “Men love her because they want to be with her. Women love her because they want to be her,” according to The Guardian
I think her attitude to life and ageing makes her a fine role model for all of us heading into our sixth decade.
Her life philosophy is to be admired: “when you cook, you need structure .. but just as importantly you need to be able to loosen up and go with the flow .. you must not strive for perfection but, rather, acknowledge your mistakes and work out how you can rectify them”.
She’s also very sexy, of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCUgu19PNUQ