Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
Luckily, Helen Mirren is embracing it all. Indeed, the Queen star shared how much she's been loving "everything" about her life at age 80.
"I find everything about it [fabulous]," she told Allure in an interview published Oct. 14. “F--k it, I'm alive and I'm working and I can drink a glass of wine and I can wear makeup and I can listen to music."
"I can watch a beautiful sunset," she continued, "and I can go to the theater and I can watch a movie and I can binge Netflix and I can live life. It's a beautiful thing."
Although the Red actress has embraced the current chapter of her life, she understands why so many women struggle with the change.
"It's going to happen, baby," she shared. "You can be as afraid as you like, but that's not going to change anything. It's going to happen. So live with it. It's your journey through life."
"There are disadvantages, no question," she added. "But there are also great advantages. And you learn this as you travel through life."
After all, every age comes with its own set of highs and lows.
"I think it's perfectly natural and normal for a 16-year-old to be terrified of being 40 because you know, the world is their oyster at that moment," Helen reflected. "It's theirs for the taking. They are the generation who's going to take the world on."
"I love them for that," she noted. "I can't wait to see what they're going to make of the world. It's their turn. I've had my turn and now it's theirs. That's the natural order of things."
For Helen, it was her mother Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda Kitty Rogers who set the example for her. As she told E! News in April 2024, "My mother said the greatest thing to me: 'Never be afraid of getting older.'"
"It's nature, it's what happens," she said. "And, as they say, along with getting older comes a certain kind of wisdom, a certain kind of understanding of that fact."
Simply put, "All I can say is, don't worry [about aging]. It's cool."
For more celebs who've embraced growing older, keep reading.
Heidi Klum
"I don't think of getting older as looking better or worse; it's just different. You change, and that's okay. Life is about change," she told Self.
Cameron Diaz
"There's no such thing as anti-aging. We're all aging, period. Women take it as something personal that they are getting older. They think that they failed somehow by not staying 25. This is crazy to me because my belief is that it's a privilege to get older—not everybody gets to get older," she told Access Hollywood.
Kate Beckinsale
"Historically when women have made strides of some type, culturally things rise up to oppress them. Right now I feel like we've made a lot of strides, but nobody's allowed to age or look pregnant. I feel all of that stuff has gotten worse. It's a brilliant way to keep people enslaved, by having them horrified by themselves. Well I refuse to feel shame about being human," she told the Los Angeles Times.
Jennifer Lopez
"When I turned 40, I was like, huh. I accept myself more now. It was much more comforting," she told Harper's Bazaar.
Cindy Crawford
"I'm actually happier with my body now… because the body I have now is the body I've worked for. I have a better relationship with it. From a purely aesthetic point of view, my body was better when I was 22, 23. But I didn't enjoy it. I was too busy comparing it to everyone else's," she told Popsugar.
Drew Barrymore
"Gravity and wrinkles are fine with me. They're a small price to pay for the new wisdom inside my head and my heart. If my breasts fall down to the floor and everything starts to sag, becoming hideous and gross, I won't worry," as she told Bustle.
Madonna
"F--k you. I'm 50. That's what I'm going to say when I turn 50. Sorry," as she told Popsugar.
Diane Keaton
"Here is my biggest takeaway after 60 years on the planet: There is great value in being fearless. For too much of my life, I was too afraid, too frightened by it all. That fear is one of my biggest regrets," as the told PopSugar.
Helen Mirren
"When you're 16, you think 28 is so old! And then you get to 28 and it's fabulous. You think, then, what about 42? Ugh! And then 42 is great. As you reach each age, you gain the understanding you need to deal with it and enjoy it," she told Bustle.
Jennifer Garner
Celine Dion
"There's no such thing is aging, but maturing and knowledge. It's beautiful, I call that beauty," she told Ok! Magazine.
Penelope Cruz
Kate Winslet
"I'm baffled that anyone might not think women get more beautiful as they get older. Confidence comes with age, and looking beautiful comes from the confidence someone has in themselves," she told Net-a-Porter Magazine.
Oprah Winfrey
"People who lie about their age are denying the truth and contributing to a sickness pervading our society—the sickness of wanting to be what you're not.... I know for sure that only by owning who and what you are can you step into the fullness of life," she wrote in O Magazine.
Diane Von Furstenberg
"Aging is out of your control. How you handle it, though, is in your hands.... In my older face, I see my life. Every wrinkle, every smile line, every age spot. There is a saying that with age, you look outside what you are inside. If you are someone who never smiles, your face gets saggy. If you're a person who smiles a lot, you will have more smile lines. Your wrinkles reflect the roads you have taken; they form the map of your life. My face reflects the wind and sun and rain and dust from the trips I've taken. My face carries all my memories. Why should I erase them?" she told Vogue.
Reese Witherspoon
"But I think as a woman, you get older, you feel more confident in your sexuality. You're not as intimidated by it, not as embarrassed by it. Sexuality and femininity is an accumulation of age and wisdom and comfort in your own skin," she told Glamour.