Brooke Shields has a few things to say about aging — and she isn’t holding back in an exclusive interview with Real Simple.
The 59-year-old model-actress is less than one week away from releasing her upcoming book, “Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old,” as she enters what she describes as the “next third” of her life.
When asked about the title of the book, Shields explained to Real Simple that it’s something she has felt for a long time.
“People imprint onto me what they remember from a certain era of my life, and they’re attached to that,” she told the magazine. “By virtue of that fact, I’m a disappointment as an older person.”
She then recalled a recent memory when she brought up her age (she was 58 at the time) while talking to a gentleman about years of wine vintages.
The moment she said she was 58, the gentleman responded, “You really shouldn’t have told me that.”
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Shields was taken back by his comment, but knew he wasn’t trying to be mean and realized it was just his honest reaction. But still, the comment got her thinking.
“If we saw [Marilyn Monroe] as a 70-year-old woman, we’d probably be like, ‘Oh, she’s no longer Marilyn Monroe,” Shields explained.
“There’s something that happens to the human psyche with a face we’ve gotten attached to for some reason,” she added.
That thought helped Shields realize that most people aren’t chasing youth for themselves, but rather for other people.
“It’s for partners, it’s for the way you’re looked at in public, and it’s a dangerous, slippery slope,” she said.
But that’s why she decided to write her latest book.
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“I hope it opens up a conversation about what the ideals are and what beauty really means,” she said of the book. “Beauty can come in different forms. It doesn’t have to be associated with youth.”
Shields goes on to admit that being considered “aged” at 59 years old “doesn’t feel right” to her — and even finds it weird that embracing the aging process is considered “rebellious.”
But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t appreciate self-improvement — no matter what that means to someone else.
“I’m all for it. But our society has become so myopically focused on youth, we lose sight of the value that comes with age and experience and time,” she says.
Shields explains how she talks about beauty to her daughters
Shields shares two daughters — Rowan Francis, 21, and Grier Hammond, 18 — with her husband, Chris Henchy.
The couple met in 1999 when Henchy returned her new dog after it got loose in the Warner Bros. parking lot, according to her 2005 memoir “Down Came the Rain.”
They tied the knot on April 4, 2001 and welcomed their first daughter in 2003, per People. Their second daughter was born three years later.
In her interview with Real Simple, Shields explained that she doesn’t shy away from telling her daughters that they’re beautiful, but admits that it has to come with a caveat.
“I tell them that beauty means different things to different people and different cultures. And it’s not all you are. It is a piece and part of your individuality,” she says.
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Shields recalled memories of when Rowan was a baby and people would act surprised that she didn’t look more like her mother.
“So now you’ve told my daughter she’s not pretty because she doesn’t look like this person. And you’re telling me I’m no longer pretty because I don’t look like what I used to look like,” she explains.
“That’s just (expletive) up in every possible way,” she adds.
Later in the interview, Shields was asked if she feels like a new person as she prepares to turn 60 in a few months.
“I feel like more of a new person now than I’ve ever felt,” she replied — adding that it has a lot to do with not being focused on doing certain things before a certain age.
While she still has goals and milestones she wants to achieve, she’s “a bit more in my own life and skin.”
“I’m sitting with myself more. I don’t bore myself. I think there’s something to be said for this next third of our lives,” she continued.
Shields turns 60 on May 31, but isn’t sure how she wants to celebrate it yet.
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“I don’t want a big party. It’s just too much pressure,” she says.