Cameron Diaz turned 54 today, and her approach to ageing stands in stark contrast to many of her Hollywood peers. More than a decade ago, she famously said that "women don't allow ourselves to age gracefully," yet that is exactly what the Charlie's Angels star is determined to do.
Now a mother of three, having quietly welcomed her third child with Good Charlotte rocker husband Benji Madden at the age of 53 this year, Cameron says she sees getting older as a "privilege" and is happy with her face changing as she looks in the mirror.
Focus on family over vanity
These days, she admits that she is so focused on other things in her life that she "never washes her face" as she ditches vanity after years spent in makeup artists' chairs. Instead, she is more interested in feeling comfortable in her own skin and "trying to stay alive" to look after her young kids — daughter Raddix, six, and sons Cardinal, two, and three-month-old Nautas.
In an exclusive interview with the Mirror back in April, Cameron joked: "The only pressure for me now is I have to live to be, like, 107, you know? The women who have children my age are literally 20 years younger and that's an interesting place to be because I'm not that age. And that's totally OK. But I want to feel vital like that for my children. I'm just trying to stay alive just like every other mother. I'm just trying to keep it going."
Past experience with botox
When it comes to her beauty regime, Cameron has been open about her brief dabble with botox at the age of 41. Though she didn't carry on with it as she felt it left her looking unrecognisable.
In a 2014 interview with Entertainment Tonight, she shared: "I've tried botox before, where it was like a little tiny touch of something. It changed my face in such a weird way that I was like, 'No, I don't want to be like that.' I'd rather see my face ageing than a face that doesn't belong to me at all."
Adding that the tweakment made her feel disconnected from her natural expressions, which is especially important as an actor, she said she'd learned to appreciate her laugh lines as a sign of a life filled with joy. "I don't mind. It's like, 'Guess what this means - I've smiled my whole life.' I love life. I'm happy. I don't have a problem with that."
Embracing age as a privilege
That same year Cameron released her book, 'The Body Book: Feed, Move, Understand and Love Your Amazing Body', a wellness guide focusing on long-term health, nutrition, fitness, and the mind-body connection over quick-fix diets.
In an interview about it with the LA Review of Books, Cameron says: "We feel like if we're not how we were when we were 25 years old, if we don't look the same, that we have failed in some way. We have not done our job by staying in a stagnant place. I always want to be changing and I always want to be getting older. I always want to be getting wise. That, to me, is a privilege."
Appearing on RuPaul's Drag Race judge Michelle Visage's Rule Breaks podcast in 2022, Cameron — who had a 10-year break from Hollywood to spend time with family and raise her kids — said it was "hard not to look at yourself and judge yourself against other markers of beauty".
But her break out of the spotlight did her good and she's now embraced a side of herself she didn't know existed. "The last eight years, girl - I'm like wild. I'm like a wild animal, like a beast!" she declared.
Describing what her beauty regime looks like now, Cameron admitted: "I literally do nothing. I like never wash my face… Twice a month if I'm lucky, I'll be like, 'Oh, I better put this on. One time works, right?' Like, is that all I have to do? I'm just not in that place right now like where I put any energy."
Nowadays, the There's Something About Mary star "doesn't care" what she looks like and says: "I don't care. Literally, the last thing I think about on a daily basis - like maybe not at all during the day - is what I look like."
