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Closer Magazine sends us a lot of promotional stuff. Their readership skews quite older because the celebrities they interview are usually in their 60s and above. Think Kenny Rogers, Lindsay Wagner, Laurie Metcalf, Glenn Close, etc. (Sidenote: Laurie Metcalf is 62 can you believe it?!) So this interview with Christie Brinkley is aimed at their audience, particularly because Christie has made a cottage industry out of looking younger than she is (with extensive help from plastic surgeons, only partially acknowledged). It’s more of the same from Christie in this interview, but I like to talk about her so here it is. Note that she didn’t get the cover of this one, on newsstands now. That’s reserved for the late great Joan Rivers while Christie has a sidebar.
Christie Brinkley opened up to Closer Weekly explaining why turning 64 seemed daunting to her before and what she is doing now to make it her best year yet!
Through the years, Christie always had mixed feelings when she heard the Beatles’ 1967 hit “When I’m Sixty-Four.” “That number, that birthday, has always seemed old to me because of that song,” the supermodel explains to Closer.
As the all-American beauty turned that exact age on Feb. 2, however, she feels as fantastic as ever. “I’m not going to let that number make me feel old. I’m going to kick my birthday off with a party,” insists Christie.
“The best part of being my age is not really caring what other people think,” says Christie, who’s determined to ignore her critics and live her life with no regrets.
“I’d been wanting to move back to New York, so I just got myself an apartment,” she tells Closer. “Don’t hesitate. Just get out there and go! That’s what I’m doing.”
It sounds like a cliché, Christie admits, but she’ll actively be counting her blessings more in 2018. “An attitude of gratitude is the first thing people see when you walk in the door,” she enthuses. Besides, “there’s so much to be grateful about, and it’s so much fun to be happy!”
I would say Christie definitely cares what people think, given all the ways she seeks validation, especially on social media. I get it though, I mean I still do full hair and makeup every day and I would also say I care less about what people think as I get older. I realize that little things don’t matter as much and that you can design your life your way. Christie gives good advice about just doing your thing. It’s probably infinitely easier if you have Christie Brinkley’s amount of money and time. She does interviews saying how awesome her life is, she posts some pics to Instagram, makes millions flipping houses, slaps her name on some products, and she’s living large. I joke, but I checked her social media and she just launched a new makeup line on QVC yesterday. I wouldn’t mind if if my 60s were like Christie Brinkley’s, that would be awesome, but I’m staying away from the ‘tox and fillers. I want to look like Laurie Metcalf, not Christie.
photos credit: Getty, WENN, Pacific Coast News
Yikes, she looks like Janice Dickinson in the shot with the pink hat. She is clearly terrified of aging, no matter how many words she says, and I find it kind of sad.
I was getting a whiff of Jocelyne Wildenstein in that pic! Sixty-four and still quite thirsty.
Yes — Cat Lady looking.
Brinkley was so beautiful before she decided to plump/tuck her face. Her late mother was a beauty who aged naturally. Christie has fabulous bone structure — why she took this route is beyond comprehension. She could have been a great role model ageing gracefully.
She’s gone full Wildenstein. It is awful.
Holy fillers, Batman!
Yeah….it’s crazy how so many of these older women go from looking Done-But-Still-Pretty to Crazy Town overnight. I swear, it was just a few years ago that I thought Brinkley looked pretty great. Now? Not so much.
And yes, the thirst is strong with this one.
She looked wonderful just a few years ago. She’s always exercised and taken care of her skin, and the nips and tucks she had were subtle. Now, her lips and those hair extensions….not good.
Yeah the close up of her in the pink hat says she does care what people think,and she looks over done in the filler department
Yep. At first her facelift she had somewhere in her 50s was a little too tight and not believable at her age, but it loosened up over time. She looked fantastic. But once she started with the heavy filler in her cheeks she went from looking fantastic to way overdone and just odd at her age.
She already had genetics going for her, a great smile, with an upturned mouth at the corners, which is more youthful as you age, than many mouths that start turning down at the corners. The shape of her face was a plus for looking youthful, So all she had to do was tweak. Then she got hooked on fillers, and like many, went too far.
Yeah, with a face full of plastic surgery, methinks she cares deeply what people think of her. It’s not surprising really that in an industry where your looks are your “value” that a woman will see her worth being tied to looking young and beautiful.
I look at Sharon Stone, who looks to have very little work done, few fillers and she looks gorgeous. Julia Dreyfus & Sally Field as other examples. They look younger than these women who have stretched, pulled and plumped themselves up. The naturally aging women using very little enhancements look much younger and better than these fake dolls.
Didn’t Sharon Stone get a facelift years ago? I thought she did it as a preventative measure. Maybe I’m remembering incorrectly.
Christie needs to find a better doctor to give her fillers. Cheek fillers aren’t supposed to be so much that it makes the eyes small when you smile.
@jag Yes, I remember Sharon Stone getting a facelift. She’s not completely “natural” at all, but she found a good doctor and is very conservative about how much she puts in her face. I once heard that good plastic surgery (including fillers, botox, etc..) don’t make you look like you’re not aging. It just makes you look like you’re aging well.
I guess filler is for the Uber wealthy what lip gloss is for us peasants. My point is, I can see the temptation to want to go full Blown “glam” 24/7; it feels good, and what’s the alternative- the facial skin slides under your chin??? Cause that’s what “aging gracefuly” really Is- a wrinkled face mask under the chin, with ghoul eyes and a wonky nose. That IS reality, and by today’s standards, not so “graceful”. Thankfully big butts are in fashion (for me too late for teen self esteem). Please give me a call when REAL aging is a THING- until then, stop asking why we older women choose to try whatever.
Agreeing with pretty much everyone. She still has success. Genetics play a major role.
And this is well after she’s made millions because of what people think of her.
Some shade is earned.
What’s crazy is attempting to stop the natural aging process looks so much more terrifyingly unattractive. There is nothing ugly about aging. It’s not something to deform yourself over. Imagine how different her face would be without that cat lazy nonsense. Such a shame.
I’m all for looking ones best…but what so many women think looks good seems so skewed to me. It’s like tinkering for the sake of tinkering with an ‘everybody does it’ mentality. Stop!! You all look beautiful. Stop disfiguring yourself. Put your money where your mouth is and genuinely lead with gratitude and confidence which, I promise, looks really attractive.
I feel sad for her too. I am seeing wrinkles and think, damn I need to do something but then see women like this and think I just need to embrace. She looks feline like and it’s sad to see
Last night my husband and I were talking about plastic surgery,fillers,Botox,etc-we decided to go very carefully if at all in this area,when the aging really starts to show,because I honestly think that someday those who have little to no work done will be the minority,and those who have gone over the top will want to look normal.No insults intended to anyone who has work done though 😁
Mmhmmm exactly. Like, we are very close to being a society where forehead wrinkles are considered cute/unusual like dimples or something FFS.
Craziness.
Aging naturally is the way most of us have to go anyway-eternal beauty is expensive!
Say, did anyone see the advert for Neutrogena’s anti-aging cream with Nicole Kidman? I would buy it….
I’ve had forehead wrinkle since I was a teen, I can’t control my face, I use a lot of expression. At this point they are part of my normal face. If I did something about them, I wouldn’t look like my normal self. My friends would be shocked to see them gone.
@Spicecake
When someone is reasonable and just want to look fresher and reflect how youthful they feel I can get with that. My MIL had a facelift and some work when she was in her late 50s and I must be honest and say she looks amazing. She didn’t try to look 20. My mother only does facials and expensive creams.
I don’t think I will do anything but 20 years from now when I am in my mid-fifties I might think differently. Who knows.
Overworked faces are horrible looking. I would rather age gracefully than look like Christy B.
Isabeele
My forehead is full of wrinkles since i was like six. It’s my facial expressions, I don’t wanna control them. Part of my charm.
I am against procedures because of this. And of course, how healthy can it be? Cos if you are healthy, you can do anything.
Brinkley looked great until few years ago and now she’s a cat lady. Silly woman.
yeah, looks like she’s not practicing what she preaches, but I agree with what she’s preaching.
I’ve on the downside to 50 and I’ve been saying more and more how getting older isn’t so bad because you have fewer f*cks to give.
A few years ago, I saw a picture of her and she was unrecognizable cause she had her eyes done. I think she just messed with them again.
I guess she does all that for herself.
If she keeps adding filler to those chipmunk cheeks, she’ll need a fasciotomy.
I thought she was Brandi Granville!
She looks like the Joker in the header pic! So many fillers!!!
Thankfully I have never been gorgeous so aging gracefully is easy.
I find that some of the people I find most beautiful, don’t think they are pretty or handsome.
So my guess is, you are more beautiful than you think!
Agree!
Thank you!
Just about all of the actresses/models when interviewed say they were unattractive teens or didn’t think of themselves as beautiful. Not so much. She’s been nip and tucking for years but went full Joan Rivers here. It is painful to look at her now. Our society is partly to blame for it’s obsession with aesthetics and youth. She caved and looks ridiculous.
AGREE
YES!!!!
I am always struck by how down on their looks women are when they are attractive and pretty. So many. Everyone has at least one feature, more most likely that is beautiful.
When some people smile their whole face smiles and their eyes dance with happiness. THAT is beauty to me. It is striking when I see it. Then I want to make them laugh to see it again.
Looks like she’s entering the hairpiece/wig business as well (following Eva, Raquel and Jaclyn).
That. face. OMG. Puffy and cat-eyed. Sad.
I don’t understand what fillers are and what their job is. Are they a new alternative to a face lift?
I really think that fillers work for people until they are in their early-to-mid-fifties or so. After that, they’re much better off going for a mini facelift IMO.
I think fillers are supposed to help with smoothing out wrinkles and mostly by giving some volume to saggy skin (loss of fat and elasticity due to aging, smoking, sun damage). I think facelifts only help with smoothing out wrinkles.
“I think facelifts only help with smoothing out wrinkles. ”
No, a facelift involves tightening of the muscles and ligaments and the repositioning of fat pads.
I have a thin face which is getting thinner as I get older. My mom has very prominent cheekbones, almost gaunt looking but she is normal weight. Fillers basically help plump up your face. I tried some couple years ago. She put a touch at the corners of my mouth where I have creases from smoking in the past. Plus a little all over. The reason I didn’t continue it is because I was only in my late 30s and I did not want to spend that much money for maintenance at that early of an age. I think she used Juvederm and it lasted about a year. I think I paid 500. Basically, it smoothed some creases and made me look rested. I will probably do it again on a regular basis. I just turned 42 and I see my face getting thinner. Trying to hold off as long as possible.
I tried them under my eyes once for volume in the hollows when I was in my early or mid forties.. It was just okay aesthetically, but not worth it for me, with the attendant bruising, icing and discomfort.
Hold off till your fifties. Then you truly won’t care nearly so much. It is very freeing!!
Not new. Just overused, and no one practices subtlety anymore.
Lmao @ “Not caring what people think.” She’s full of 💩.
Oh, she cares plenty about what people think.
+1000
Omg, that face says it all. She def cares what people think.
Bingo
Her body looks good for 62 and her hair is pretty. Those fillers tho… too much
I’m a fan of this older model, Yazemeenah Rossi, born in 1955. She is aging gracefully imo: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/fashion-beauty/498920/How-to-look-younger-Yazemeenah-Rossi-model-60-skin-anti-ageing-olive-oil
She’s stunning. Women can look amazing as they age if they keep it real. I think older women look best when they are chic and get away with unusual accessories.
At 60 lifestyle shows up on the face big time. It starts in the 30s though. Lots of sun, smoking, heavy drinking, poor diet, drug habits, stress and lack of rest starts to creep up.
Wow that is serious goals.
OMG she is a stunning woman!
She was so beautiful, and now look at her face.
Holy cat face Batman.
Jane Fonda needs to share her plastic surgeon with some of these ladies because she looks way less botoxy and she’s 80!!!
I don’t agree. Jane has overdone it with the way overplumping of her cheeks. And I believe it isn’t filler in her cheeks now. I think she’s gotten cheek implants. It’s way too fake for her age. She was looking fantastic before that. She still looks really good, but, unfortunately, lost some of the uniqueness in her face. In that movie with Robert Redford, she would be getting into bed with him and had the cheeks of a 19-year-old, so smooth and plump, with grey hair. It made me sad she went that far, because it’s not believable and didn’t serve the role she was playing at all, an average woman in her 70s falling in love with a man the same age. I mean, Jane never had those cheeks when she was 40, and she was more lined then.
Looking at photos of her from the 1970s/early 1980s (Golden Pond comes to mind) shows how much she’s done.
I met Jane in 1985. She allowed a summer camp to be run out of her property in Santa Barbara, and I was a camper. She was very nice.
I remember she looked very lined, kind of like my grandma at the time, who is about ten years older than Jane. Anyway, I remember seeing her later when she was married to Ted turner and how different she looked from when I’d met her as a kid. She’s done a lot. She’s a beautiful lady though, always was.
Scooting next to Sophia’s Side eye
I am jelly! What was the camp like?
I have a soft spot for Jane. I had an updated longish Klute cut around 1999. Because I worshiped her style in some of her movies back then.
I’ve always liked Christie. I’m 9 years younger and you do tend to care less what anyone thinks of your choices as you get older. I think she still wants validation for her looks, but the not caring comes from not caring what people think about how she achieves her “youthful” looks at 64.
I think it must be hard for women like Christie, who have been gushed over and lusted after because of their looks most of their lives to suddenly find themselves middle-aged.
I’m just planning on aging as gracefully as I can and steering clear of the Botox and fillers.
I agree. I really stopped caring what people think of me and the choices I make, right about the time I hit 40. I think as someone whose livelihood relied on her looks for so many years, it’s going to be a lot more difficult for Christie to stop seeking that validation, as you said.
But I disagree with CB’s implication above that doing one’s hair and makeup every day is an indication that one cares what others think. A lot of people, myself included, do it for ourselves. Because we like doing that. We like playing with makeup, and doing our hair. It boosts self-confidence when one look at yourself in the mirror and know that you look good. If someone disagrees with that, f*** ’em.
I agree! Even if I’m just going to the grocery store, I’ll put on some BB cream, blush and lipstick. I do it for me, because it makes me feel pretty, not because I care what someone else thinks.
Her attitude toward aging will and has affected her daughters i’m sure in a negative way its a shame really.
A woman who cares so little about what anyone thinks that she’s had more cosmetic surgery than Joan Rivers and Madonna combined, looks like an overfed cabbage patch kid in the face and dresses like a 16 year old, and thinks its normal to make sexualised bikini pics for magazine covers with her daughters…
Sure Jan
I’m here for the security guard in that last shot—his smile is awesome.
She cares what people think, just look at her face.
Her face looks frozen and painful. Just stop, Christie.
I think she now looks like Dolly Parton.
Doesn’t care what people think? Who is she trying to convince?
She looks filled in poor thing but I get how hard it can be in the industry, seeing young faces around you.
I want to know what Jane Fonda does though. She has work done but she still looks like herself:
I think the key is avoiding fillers. Fonda went straight for the face lift I think. Her eyes look crazy from the work she’s had done there though, which is a shame. Brinkley, just no. If I’m ever tempted to get fillers, the mental image of how she looks now will stop me cold. And how Courteney Cox looked on Cougartown. I can’t watch that show because her face on it freaks me out!
She has looked good into her mid 60’s but she’s getting the crazy cat woman look – Wildenstein – when she smiles. She needs to ease off the Botox and fillers.
That basket overflowing with blonde hair is like something out of a movie about a serial killer.
I really don’t like her hair, more so than the face work. Those overly blond extensions. I’m two years older than her and I color my hair blond myself, get it trimmed at collar length, and that’s it. It’s thinner than it used to be but still fine, I would never wear extensions.
LOL!
It is overdone. Way overdone.
She’s getting into Baby Jane territory with the outfits and hair.
God I wish women could just age. Be a rebel and just friggin’ age! All these women start looking the same and it ain’t pretty. It’s The Joker Look.
I plan on doing just that. Even if I had the money, I’m not sure I could justify using it on my face, so I’m just going to see what this face does on its own. I have good genes, I’ve stayed out of the sun, and I’ve never smoked, so my skin already looks really good for being 47.
My grandmother never got plastic surgery and she just got kind of jowly (which I’m already seeing in myself a bit).
My mother is 69, blonde, thin, gorgeous, big smile. She is what Brinkley would have looked like had she not jacked with her face. Yes, my mom has wrinkles, but her blue eyes are gorgeous, her smile is gorgeous, and she still has great bone structure. You can see the beauty. Besides, she claims she earned every single wrinkle, LOL.
I’m 65 and IDGAF about fillers or botox or anything – I don’t dye my hair, I’m just aging as best as I can by eating right, taking good care of my skin, no suntanning, daily exercise. These women fanatically clinging onto their youth just look silly. And like Anastasia above says, I’ve earned every damn wrinkle and grey hair and I’m proud of them.
Is that your kitty?!?! ♥ ♥
@Kitten: Yes, she was my kitty Myra – she’s been gone a couple of years now and I miss her terribly….*SNIFF*
Sorry about your baby Myra.
She had the similar markings to my kitty that lives with my parents. Sweet.
She lives on here though, and we can admire her when you post.
((hugs))
Thanks magnoliarose…she was a lovely little girl and brought me a lot of joy.
If you want to move to NY and buy an apartment there, just do it! Don’t hesitate! Just be blessing-filled, wheeee!
Spoken like a woman who never has to think about money.
lol really. I understand what she’s getting at, but saying “just buy a NYC apartment!” is a silly example. And who would give a sh*t if she bought an apartment or not?
Tired of these women preaching one thing and practicing the opposite.
Agreed. I’d like to be generous and say that it’s her face to do with what she pleases, but not when she’s lying and selling products, as if it’s possible to look like her with just some magic cream, especially when she looks freaky! It’s damaging older women to have these fake images. I feel the same about lying Cyndi Crawford. Ain’t no melon extract in the world that can plump up one’s face like that!
I’ve always admired how well she looks for her age, but now she’s taking on that Joker look. Too bad!
She’s exhausting. Her poor daughters.
Couple years ago she looked pretty darn good. But she’s all puffy now.
I prefer tasteful, understated, slight cosmetic revisions with some real aging thrown in. When people get to looking like she currently looks now, I think it defeats the purpose (beauty).
Its gone too far… and often does show up most in the light of day. She looks like no one in particular..she had a distinguishing look and maybe it was the sunny blond hair and smile. Why not just keep the hair blonde and the teeth white. I just think the rest is too risky..they still don’t know the side effects except looking like a rubber, blown up doll.
Wish that the #Me Too movement would turn people away from trying so hard to fight against aging..but it is a very youth orient culture and I see it every where I go. It is hard to be middle aged and all…and I don’t condemn CB for hanging on to youth by a thread but in the process she looks sort of deformed and unrecognizable.
This thing about women getting older and caring less about others’ opinions with every decade is true but it’s a bittersweet revelation because it underscores just how much women were taught to care in their younger years, and what a burden it was. Not sure we hear men celebrating their newfound “don’t give a s–t” attitudes. As well, for older women, we don’t care what others think maybe partly because we’re finding that as we get older, others care what *we* think less and less.
I’m not opposed to plastic surgery and fillers in the least but I think the considering she has filled her face to the max and had a ton of work done as well as the social media validation needs, she cares very much about what people think of her. Her face is starting to look scary and puffy now. Plastic surgery is great when it looks natural. Christie is taking it too far.
She’s finally starting to look like a cat lady to me. Sad. She made aging look good until now.
And just how old is Robert Redford in the photo they used on the cover?
I have always, ALWAYS adored him, but he does not look like that at all now.
I don’t think she looks young at all :-
Does plastic surgery ever really make someone look young? For the most part, it seems like plastic surgery either makes you look old (Kylie, Lohan), your same age but refreshed (Hillary), or your same age but really scary.
what is she doing to make her eyes disappear? And why?
Fillers under the eyes. The ‘disappearing eyes’ look is a dead giveaway. See Melania Trump, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Westfeldt etc.
Not caring about what other people think seems to have coincided with her inabilty to keep trading on her looks. How convenient.
dp
On the other hand, at 64 what other people think probably pales in comparison to the ravages of time and the looming spectre of death. In fact worrying about what other people think probably seems like a luxury at this point.
She’s so annoying!
yeah, a lot of plastic surgery for not caring.
remember when she was an art student in paris….?
Oh dear. There was a point when she seemed to be going about it so well. Now this.
So I will admit I am of the school of thought-start early and go gentle. I had my eye lids (upper) done at age 38, judicious botox beteen the brows since 34, full forehead lift (not endoscopic) last yeat. Turning 50 next week and did a bit of filler up on cheekbone close to hairline just to give some volume and pull up the smile lines. My surgeon (Mass General) and derm will say “no” to me. When I had my forehead done I said frozen and high, he said nope I don’t do that kind of work. My role model for youths look is Pamela Harriman who looked better at 70 than 20.
I’m 42. My eyelids are starting to sag at the corners but I’ve seen a couple women with bad eye lifts. So I’m worried about getting a bad one. I’m doing botox right now for my crow’s feet. I don’t see anything wrong with having stuff done. The key is not going overboard and having someone who say no if it’s too much.
Puffy filler-face…. eeek!!!