Paulina Porizkova has been through a lot in the last five years. I mostly know about Paulina Porizkova from what I’ve read on CB, but I like her. Do I think she sometimes fails to take note that she is a genetic lottery winner? Sure, but nobody’s perfect. I’ll even forgive her icky four-months with Aaron Sorkin (sorry, y’all, I love “The West Wing” but he creeps me out for some reason). I do appreciate, though, that she candidly speaks out about issues like grief, menopause, beauty standards, and aging. In a recent interview with People, Paulina spoke more about aging, including reconciling her personal vs. her social media persona, feeling that she’s currently in her prime, intermittent fasting, and, of course, her feelings on getting older.
Woman Gone Unfiltered: The 58-year-old supermodel and writer has learned to accept herself and let go of the past. The desire to put her unfiltered self “out there” encompassed part of that journey, whether it was sharing photos of herself makeup-free or in a bikini. “As soon as you start filtering yourself or auto-tuning your photos and stuff, well then, it’s not really all that authentic anymore,” Porizkova told PEOPLE. “I feel a responsibility to put myself out there as I am.”
She is 32 flavors and then some: Self-acceptance in aging has delivered far more benefits than just a significant other [television writer and producer Jeff Greenstein] for the Swedish model, who believes freedom can be found after menopause. “One of the incredible things about aging is that you care less and less about what other people think,” Porizkova admitted. “You’re like, ‘You know what? I’ve done my bit. I’ve been serving everybody else for 50 years – now, it’s my turn.’”
Paulina, in her prime:: “I know without a doubt that I am the best that I’ve ever been,” Porizkova said. “Why do I need improvement? I’m in my prime right now. I’m sorry that you think my wrinkles dismiss me from being in my prime, but as a person, as a fully formed woman at the height of her power, this is it.”
Don’t go chasing youth: At book events, she resonates more with the women who know her “Instagram me” as opposed to those who come because of her modeling days with Estée Lauder. Fighting the urge to “not chase youth” or “pretend that she is younger” is a kind of acceptance she admits to still be “working on.”
Menopause comes for us all: The same goes for managing changes in the body post-menopause, including weight gain. After exercising more (“great for my emotional state … [but] it made me be more hungry”) she found her happy medium with intermittent fasting, where, she says, “it’s all about balance.”
Intermittent fasting is still her thing: “I don’t eat very much, but when I eat, I eat the stuff I want to eat,” Porizkova explained of her routine, which she’s done the past four years. “Sometimes they’re very healthy, and sometimes they aren’t, because they make me happy.”
On accepting that she’s aging: “I’m working on this as hard as I can,” Porizkova said. “This self-acceptance thing, the looking at yourself in the mirror and going, ‘Okay, well, looking older than I did yesterday, but you know what? When I’m 70, I’ll think back at this time as like, ‘Damn, I was pretty hot. What was I complaining about?’”
First of all, Paulina *is* pretty hot, so she better look back and recognize that, lol. And when she’s 90, I hope she looks back at pictures of herself at 70 and says the exact same thing. It’s a nice attitude to have, though, even if it’s not always easy to think positively and treat ourselves with the self-love we deserve. To be completely honest, when I see pictures of myself before my children were born, my default way of thinking is, “Holy crap, I looked so much younger and brighter than I remember being! When did I start looking so puffy and old?” Then, Mr. Rosie will remind me that I’m 10+ years older than when most of those pictures were taken and I need to remember I’ve earned every line, wrinkle, and dark circle. I know it’s corny and cliché, but getting old is a blessing. The older you get, the more you realize the truth in that sentence and how it applies to you.
photos credit: IMAGO/Isabelle Ouvrard/Avalon and via Instagram
“Holy crap, I looked so much younger and brighter than I remember being! When did I start looking so puffy and old?” Then, Mr. Rosie will remind me that I’m 10+ years older than when most of those pictures were taken”
Yeah that’s always hard for me—this bizarre, built-in expectation that I’m supposed to look as good as I did 10 (or 20 lol) years ago. I always have to remind myself to focus on looking good at 44, not trying to look like I did at 24. And Paulina has the right attitude—as soon as I turned 30 I started reminding myself on days that I felt old that I’ll never be this young again. It’s both comforting and a bit frightening lol but it works.
I’m not sorry, but I find all of this obnoxious fishing for compliments. If she really thinks that she isn’t beautiful, she’s gonna run away screaming in horror if she ever sees me.
She’ll run from me also. Why can people not age gracefully?
Paulina is not Swedish. She was born in the former Czechoslovakia.
Shut UP, Paulina! On and on and on she goes about herself and her looks. She doth protest SO MUCH about it, that it seems she is not cool with aging at all.
She is a public figure, okay. Can she use that for a cause? Trans rights? Climate change? Something??
I’m happy for her. Aging in the public eye must be brutal. Dating in the public eye must be awful. Good for her trying to make the world a better place with her thoughts, experience and positive messaging. I love that people are speaking about menopause more. I felt completely unprepared for how brutal my experience was – so the more information out there, the better.
“I don’t eat very much, but when I eat, I eat the stuff I want to eat.” Sorry, there is nothing positive in that statement. Decades of disordered eating habits to meet an impossible beauty standard now seem “normal” to her.
Totally agree. Do not take nutrition advice from this woman.
This interview was the biggest eye roll. I understand that her looks were her money maker but dude needs to get a grip. She is wealthy, white and healthy. Maybe she should put her resources into something worthwhile to distract her from the ‘horrors’ of aging.
Paulina makes the case for ” never stop learning”. She is stuck at the age Ric oseary(sp) found her. She is just a woman looking for a man to prop her up. It’s crazy. I thought she was accomplished in something? As soon as he died she panicked.
Ocasek 🙂 I knew what you meant, but in case anyone didn’t.
Lead singer of the Cars, 20 years older than her when she married him, and yeah… I think it’s been a struggle for her to adjust to her experiences, especially what he did in the will after she cared for him during his illness. I feel terribly for her. I would rather her be loud and proud than facetuned and ‘toxed and filled until she’s a caricature.
She’s beautiful and I appreciate her willingness to share her journey but I’m not taking “self-acceptance” tips from someone who practices controlled starvation so she can still be model thin.
“I don’t eat very much, but when I eat”
There is zero self-acceptance with this woman; the more she goes on about her self-acceptance, the less she obviously has.
Look at Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford. They understood full well that their careers and looks weren’t going to last forever so parlayed their influence into worthwhile causes and other businesses instead of hanging onto the coattails of wealthy men. Paulina has nothing speak of instead of her aging and disordered eating. How people can say they appreciate or admire this is beyond me.
Just a caution…intermittent fasting for women can be very harmful. I have no idea what version she is doing (there are MANY some less harmful) but almost all studies are based on men. For women it really impacts hormones, which as we move through menopause are already all over the place.
This woman may have disordered eating patterns from her past as a model. So please ladies, please take caution and if you are interested in IF consult a dietician or nutritionist to work you through it in a safe way.
Totally agree. It’s also very bad for certain conditions and medications; there are some drugs you can’t take on an empty stomach without the hit hitting hard.
While I appreciate what she’s saying and I agree, I actually find the fact that this is all she talks about now kind of obnoxious. Sorry not sorry. She’s a beautiful woman. STILL. She is tall and thin and healthy. And it really seems like she herself is struggling with getting older and is attempting to accept it. It doesn’t read as confident to me. Also the whole “I don’t eat much” thing is a red flag. If we’re going to call Gwyneth out on that then we most certainly should call Paulina out on it as well.
I don’t know the background to this woman very much, and excuse me if there is some trauma involved, but why is she always banging on about her looks and the ageing process? She sounds completely over invested in proving herself young. Being confident about your looks at any age is great, but this carry on is self indulgent. And boring. It smacks of fear and insecurity, actually, which is surely not the angle she’s going for.
She won the genetic lottery and is wealthy enough to hire the best personal trainer, buy the best skin products, wardrobe, etc. etc. despite aging without botox, injectibles, etc. Lots of us are aging naturally and doing it quite well actually — I look a lot younger than I am (71) and attribute it to healthy eating, not smoking or tanning, and exercise. I’m no longer the svelte 125 lbs I was in my younger years but it’s your face or your fanny at my age so an extra 10-12 lbs doesn’t faze me. In any event, she doesn’t get a cookie from me and is skinny enough to make me think that her comment about not eating much is actually disordered eating.
I used to think she was cool: a naturally aging woman talking frankly about aging and women’s changing bodies. Now … I agree with most other commenters here. She needs to find a hobby or a cause and get her head out of her own arse. And honey, if you “don’t eat very much,” that’s not “intermittent fasting,” that’s just downright starving yourself.
I like her. Yeah she can go on a bit, but she had quite a trauma and was actually pretty broke when her husband died and wrote her out of the will. I am hoping her character continues to develop.
I agree with commenter above who said she is kind of stunted from the relationship with Ric. And I think it actually is somewhat traumatic to be her level of stunning and model-high-life and see it all crumble apart and have to figure out life and how to relate to the world as she ages. That was the the one consistent thing that gave her positive feedback, of course she’s adjusting.
The commenters are only discussing one aspect of her. She has written some smart essays. I think she has potential. I’m still here to see her and how she grows.
I usually don’t have sympathy for former “other women” but she was so young. And she’s older now and some parts adrift mixed with some parts enlightened…and publicly processing, and yes, sometimes oversharing . STILL, I have a lot of compassion for her. I think we are all just making it up as we go along, we’re all confused sometimes and sad and messy. She wears it on her sleeve and it isn’t all bad