Living Agelessly: a healthy attitude to age, or cosmetic enhancements?

By: Becky Foster
Created on 10th May 2011

The press surrounding the recent royal wedding focused not only on bride, Kate Middleton, but her fifty-six year old mother, former flight attendant Carole Middleton. Elegantly dressed in a pale blue wool crepe coat dress by Catherine Walker, the bride's mother will have received many compliments from observers young and old, who are surely asking how she stays in such good shape for a woman of over fifty.

Carole Middleton is but one woman in a whole generation who holds onto a healthy, youthful appearance as the years march on, refusing to let her style and the public perception of her image be defined by years. Celebrities like Helen Mirren and Sarah Jessica Parker are widely regarded as global style icons, despite their advancing years in comparison with younger celebrity style icons (many of whom are still in their teens!)

However, are the youthful appearances of these women a result of merely a healthy inner attitude to aging and lifestyle, or are we overlooking the cosmetic enhancements that celebrities often turn to today in an effort to remain fresh faced? Actress Demi Moore, married to Ashton Kutcher (fifteen years her junior) dresses as elegantly as her teenage daughters, and arguably looks equally as attractive. However, she is also rumoured to have had $200 000 worth of cosmetic surgery re-modelling her body and face to accompany her A-list lifestyle at beauty spas and gyms.

Take Queen of Pop, Madonna as another example of a woman living agelessly. Formerly married to film director Guy Ritchie (a man ten years her junior), and more lately a girlfriend of model Jesus Luz (twenty eight years her junior!) Madonna certainly acts like a woman much younger than her fifty-two years of age. However, it is a strong possibility the star needs more than a "toy-boy" to keep her feeling youthful, as her suspiciously wrinkle free face suggests the use of Botox to eliminate traces of crow's feet and other lines.

And it is not just celebrity women who are using techniques such as Botox to keep the wrinkles away. Indeed, music mogul Simon Cowell has admitted to getting Botox fillers to keep his face looking more youthful.

So what lesson can we take from those celebrities that live "agelessly"? Certainly, a healthy and upbeat attitude towards lifestyle and the aging process is essential for women like Carole Middleton to look as good as they do. However, for many of the celebrities we look towards as style icons, it is the money generated by their A-list lifestyles that points towards the cosmetic route to staying young...