• Cameron Diaz, 49, says her “whole concept of aging has just changed completely” since having her now 2-year-old daughter.
  • “It’s totally opened up. I’m excited,” she said.
  • Since retiring from acting in 2014, she’s done her best to let go of societal beauty standards.

A lot has changed in Cameron Diaz’s life since leaving Hollywood for good in 2014. After retiring from acting, Diaz started a wine brand, married singer Benji Madden, and became a mother at 47, which, as you could probably imagine, put life into perspective.

Now in 2022, The Mask star is constantly learning from her 2-year-old daughter Raddix. In fact, she recently told Gwyneth Paltrow on The Goop Podcast that her “whole concept of aging has just changed completely.” Instead of dreading getting older, she’s looking forward to all of the possibilities a future with Raddix can bring.

“It’s totally opened up. I’m excited. I’ve got 50 or 60 years to go—I want to live to be 110, since I’ve got a young child,” she told Paltrow. “I think you have this amazing moment in your 40s where you appreciate who your parents are, and I want to have that moment with her—be there with her in her 40s.”

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And she doesn’t think she’ll have any trouble making it that far. “My family’s from sturdy stock,” she says. “My grandmother was running around in the hot San Fernando Valley sun at 72, hauling big bags of rabbit feed and chicken feed around. I think I’ve got some of that. And as is true for most people, I think how I look and feel is some combination of what I do and what I don’t do.”

Aging out of the spotlight has come with lots of wisdom for Diaz, who has done her best to let go of the pressure to meet societal beauty standards. During a March appearance on Michelle Visage’s Rule Breakers podcast, she admitted that she rarely even washes her face. “I don’t care. Literally, the last thing I think about on a daily basis—like maybe not at all during the day—is what I look like,” she said. “Twice a month if I’m lucky, I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I better put this on. One time works, right?’ Like is that all I have to do?”

Instead, she prefers to focus on being gentle with herself, especially lately, as she recovers from an injured Achilles. “I’m looking forward to all the aspects of growth to come in my 50s,” she told Goop. “I’m working on building my muscle mass so I’ll have it as my hormones change.”

And she doesn’t at all mind being the oldest mom in her friend group. “It’s great,” she said. “I’m lucky to be my age, lucky to have those girlfriends, lucky to have my daughter, lucky to have all the support I do raising her.”

Now that’s an inspiring mindset—one we’d love to see a whole lot more of.

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Kayla Blanton

Kayla Blanton is a freelance writer-editor who covers health, nutrition, and lifestyle topics for various publications including Prevention, Everyday Health, SELF, People, and more. She’s always open to conversations about fueling up with flavorful dishes, busting beauty standards, and finding new, gentle ways to care for our bodies. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University with specializations in women, gender, and sexuality studies and public health, and is a born-and-raised midwesterner living in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and two spoiled kitties.