How Nigella Lawson won the ageing game (2024)

Age is the enemy of female fame but some women manage more gracefully than others. Kristie Lau ferrets out the good, the bad and the downright ghastly.

Sexy tricks

Nigella Lawson, 48

The domestic goddess with to-die-for alabaster skin is famous for creating a stir in the kitchen and not just for her mean cooking skills. Edging 50, Lawson happily embraces her fuller figure; however, she does admit to working out with a personal trainer for many years to stay healthy. She says looking good comes from feeling healthy on the inside, no matter your age. "I think what ages a face most is disappointment and a lack of enjoyment. So I try to do what I love," she says. Lawson even suggests wearing stockings as a good way to lift your self-esteem. "Stockings never fail to make you feel sexy. I like hold-ups but the problem is if you've got too much meat at the top, you get a bulge there. So I often wear those over-the-knee French schoolgirl socks," she told Esquire magazine last year.

The surgery resister

Halle Berry, 42

The dazzling face of Revlon and mother of 8-month-old bub Nahla, Berry looks as fresh as a daisy in almost every photograph she appears in. Naturally blessed with the most delectable-looking skin in Hollywood, Berry avoids surgical enhancement - for the time being, anyway. "No, I haven't [had surgery]. But that's one thing I'll never say never about because I don't know. I hope I will evolve as a person who realises it's really not about my physical appearance and not be drawn to that seductive knife," she told America's Readers Digest last year. And her thoughts post-childbirth? Berry told In Style magazine: "Right now I have so much joy and energy. I can just go and go and go, my skin is aglow from all the hormones. I actually wear less make-up now, which is really good."

Just love and sunscreen

Nicole Kidman, 41

World-renowned nowadays for her porcelain skin and feline features, Kidman's appearance has completely transformed over the years. Once red-haired, freckle-sprinkled and round-faced, the actor with suspiciously ironed-out skin is now pale blonde with protruding cheekbones that could slice sharper than a samurai. Despite the metamorphosis, she denies succumbing to the temptations of cosmetic surgery and has told marie claire magazine: "To be honest, I am completely natural. I have nothing in my face or anything. I wear sunscreen and I don't smoke. I take care of myself and I'm very proud to say that." She says the secret to beauty is meeting someone like Keith Urban. "Fall in love - it really works," she added.

Preserving beauty - at any length

Demi Moore, 46

Moore, who outshone a bevy of young Hollywood beauties in the Charlie's Angels sequel Full Throttle, is looking mighty fine for a woman in her mid-40s who has given birth to three children. The actor, who is married to the adorable Ashton Kutcher, admitted this year to allowing leeches to suck on her blood in the hope of detoxicating her insides. With a body this good, surgery rumours were simply inevitable. It is estimated by several gossip "insiders" that Moore has spent up to $3 million on various enhancements, including routine chemical peels, collagen injections and facials as well as a breast enlargement, veneered teeth, laser whitening and facelifts. She laughs off the rumours. "They say I've had multiple face surgeries. I was in getting a facial recently and there were reports that I'd been in there for countless hours, saying I'd had surgical procedures. Am I going to sue? Do I really care?" she told The Guardian in Britain.

Paying for the past

Stacey Ferguson, 33

She may be more than 20 years her junior but "Fergalicious" is looking more and more like 57-year-old Kirstie Alley every day. Fergie, an ex-crystal meth addict, has said she only sips on a glass of wine every now and then - but the singer is often papped looking far from healthy. Hollywood gossip sites love to indulge in those persistent plastic surgery rumours, too. Idontlikeyouinthatway.com posted: "You normally see a face like hers on the Discovery Channel when divers are exploring a sunken pirate ship or a cave with bones out front." Ouch. She has been rumoured to have undergone a nose job and a forehead lift and had botox injections. Fergie has said in response to the rumours: "It is completely untrue. Personally, I see a therapist. It's hard, [the rumours] hurt my feelings. I call my hypnotherapist and cry and let it go."

Taking 'alternative' measures

Teri Hatcher, 43

Sporting some pretty heavy crow's feet, Hatcher denies going under the knife. "I don't use botox or Restylane and I've never had any surgery, no matter what you've read," she told Glamour magazine this year. She offered an unusual beauty tip to American Online. "When you're alone, open a bottle of wine and then it's not really good after four or five days," she advises. "This make-up chemist that I know was talking about all the good properties in wine - antioxidants and stuff, exfoliating qualities and she said: 'Never throw it out, dump it in your bath.' It makes you feel luxurious." Handy hint there, Teri, however we defy anybody to leave an opened bottle of wine untouched for more than two minutes (or perhaps we defy ourselves ...).

The fitness junkie

Jennifer Aniston, 39

The woman with the year-round tan who gives girls in their early 20s a run for their money in the looks department stays fabulous thanks to a strict training routine and prepared meals. The actor, who has admitted to having her nasal septum fixed in the past and thus "slept like a baby for the first time in years", denied any further cosmetic surgery to People magazine. "As boring as it sounds, it's still mine. All of it. Still mine. Short of letting everybody have a feel, I don't know what else to do. I really am pretty happy with what God gave me," she said.

Accepting nature's course

Jennifer Connelly, 37, and Helen Mirren, 63

Two actors who are constantly captured looking nothing short of exquisite; they manage to tick all the right boxes in the Hollywood ageing game - both avoid trends, both dress their age and both are more than comfortable within the skin they're in. Connelly says growing older has offered her perspective. "There was a time, when I was younger, when this whole Hollywood emphasis on beauty confused me. Well, I'm not confused any more. It's just not that important," she says. Mirren, who was a screen siren earlier in her career, made equally as big a splash when she was spotted holidaying in that red bikini with her husband this year. British tabloid Daily Mail called it "the bikini that could start a revolution".