I’ve run fashion mag for 14yrs and I know exactly why people think older women like Kylie & Holly Willoughby are sexier
IT has been 14 years since I joined the world of magazines. I was 35, Fabulous had just launched and our first cover had Kelly Osbourne, then aged 23.
She was swiftly followed by a stream of other young, nubile, twenty-somethings, including EastEnders actress Kara Tointon, 25, singer Joss Stone, 21, and Wag Abbey Clancy, 22.
Fast forward to 2022 and how things have changed.
As The Sun revealed yesterday, Kylie Minogue has just been voted the sexiest celeb over 50, followed by Liz Hurley and Jennifer Aniston.
It is hard to believe any of these incredibly beautiful women are a day over 40.
Women we would not have looked twice at back when I started — judging them “too old” for our audience — are now centre stage.
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This Sunday’s cover star is Myleene Klass, 44, while in the last year we have featured Dannii Minogue, 50, Davina McCall, 54, Louise Redknapp, 47, and Susanna Reid, 51.
There are also plans for a cover with the original girl band Bananarama, who are now all in their 60s.
Recent research found that 40-somethings made up more than a quarter of Vogue covers between 2016-20 — a huge leap from just two per cent between 2001 to 2005.
The average age of the cover stars has also jumped, from 25 in 2000 to 31 in 2021.
Most read in Fabulous
Recent covers include Naomi Campbell, 51, Thandiwe Newton, 49 and Angelina Jolie, 46, while Dame Judi Dench stole the crown for oldest cover star at 85.
Killing it in crop top
Next week I am turning 50.
There was a point when this would have made me want to lock myself in a dark room and drink my body weight in wine.
Now I feel like I am now joining an illustrious club of women.
Less than 20 years ago women over a certain age were consigned to frumpy granny roles.
Just look at Rue McClanahan, who was 51 when she took on the role of Blanche in sitcom Golden Girls in 1985.
That is a year younger than Jennifer Lopez — a woman who would not be seen dead in a twinset and pearls and is actually more likely to be killing it in a crop top, tiny skirt and heels.
Why have things changed so much?
An explosion in social media has resulted in women of all ages, sizes and races demanding to be represented in every walk of life.
And industries have begun to recognise that not only do these women have life experiences worth listening to, they also have money to spend.
However, there is still work to be done. In 2018 a Forbes report found that women over 50 accounted for 27 per cent of all consumer spending.
Yet 53 per cent said they felt overlooked by advertisers.
The cover star study, carried out by painkilling laser firm B-Cure Laser, also showed GQ men’s magazine had halved its number of female cover stars over 40 between 2001-05 and 2016-20.
Broadchurch actress Sarah Parish, 53, said in a recent interview: “We get to a certain age and we’re slightly kind of looked over.
You get to 50 and you become slightly invisible.”
So here we celebrate the gorgeous, vibrant and talented women who have ushered in a new Middle Ages.
J-LO AS HOT AS IN TWENTIES
DAME JUDI DENCH is one of Vogue’s oldest cover stars, appearing at 85.
This year, at the age of 87, she was in the running for another Oscar, this time as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast.
It brings her total to eight nominations and one win – for Best Supporting Actress in 1998 period rom-com Shakespeare In Love.
Triple Oscar-winner Meryl Streep might be 72, but retirement does not seem to be on her agenda.
She put the star-studded cast of HBO drama Big Little Lies in the shade – also winning an Emmy for her role.
That show, incidentally, centred on middle-aged beauties Nicole Kidman, 54, Reese Witherspoon, 46, and Laura Dern, 55.
Jennifer Lopez, 52, continues to look as good as she did in her 20s.
She has been working her socks off, starring in recent films Hustlers, Marry Me and Shotgun Wedding, as well being executive producer and a judge for American reality show World Of Dance.
CHIC STYLE AND BODIES TO DIE FOR
SHE might be 56 but Liz Hurley has a body that most women in their 30s would envy.
She uses it to promote her swimwear range – and there can not be a better way to advertise.
Not content with dominating our telly, Holly Willoughby, 41, launched lifestyle site Wylde Moon last year.
And the outfits she wears on This Morning regularly sell out in the shops.
Her best pal Fearne Cotton, 40, has reinvented herself from a TV and radio personality to a mental wellbeing guru, with books and a podcast to boot.
Davina McCall, 54, recently wowed us with her exercise-honed figure and chic style on ITV’s The Masked Singer.
As well as her TV work and her workout empire, Davina has taken on the menopause cause to raise awareness of the symptoms women can suffer.
The Duchess of Cambridge hit the big 4-0 in January and looks better than she did when she was just Prince William’s shy girlfriend.
In the last few years, she has shifted her style into more daring and modern looks, bringing in trouser suits.
And who could forget that dazzling golden gown she wore to the premiere of Bond flick No Time To Die last September.
RAKING IT IN AS TELLY’S BEST PAID
GMB host Susanna Reid, 51, is the highest-earning woman on TV, signing a contract in January for a reported £1.1million.
Britain’s Got Talent judge and Heart radio DJ Amanda Holden, 51, is said to rake in £700,000 a year.
Kate Garraway, 54, won a National Television Award last year for her Covid documentary Finding Derek.
Strictly Come Dancing is not only presented by two fabulous 50-somethings in Tess Daly, 53, and Claudia Winkleman, 50, but the judging panel features Shirley Ballas, 61.
In sport, Gabby Logan, 49, and Clare Balding, 51, are top of the league.
Baking queen Mary Berry, 87, is still making us drool with her cooking shows, while her Bake Off replacement Prue Leith is hailed as a style icon at 82.
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Our drama queens are among the best in the world, from Sex Education’s Gillian Anderson, 53, to Keeley Hawes, 46, who has never been busier.
And Kate Winslet, 46, insisted her wrinkles and belly were most definitely not airbrushed in the HBO thriller series Mare Of Easttown about a tormented middle-aged cop – a role which earned her a Primetime Emmy – and we could not love her more for it.