Women rally behind Catherine Zeta-Jones over age-shaming comments

Women are rallying behind Oscar-winning actor Catherine Zeta-Jones after she faced criticism on social media over her looks at a recent red carpet event.

Zeta-Jones attended a Netflix event in Los Angeles on 9 November where a TikTok interview about her role in the latest Wednesday series was overshadowed by comments about her appearance.

Laura White, 58, and this year’s winner of Miss Great Britain Classic, called the backlash “complete nonsense”, adding that “men don’t have this sell-by/use-by date that women do”.

Beauty journalist Sali Hughes, 50, said unlike men, women were unfairly judged for ageing and Mumbles-born Zeta-Jones should be free to look however she liked.

In the video, which was also posted on Facebook and had more than 2.5m views, Zeta-Jones, who is married to actor Michael Douglas, talked about how much she enjoyed exploring her character, Morticia Addams, in season two.

But many of the hundreds of comments focused on her age and were disparaging about her appearance.

The online backlash sparked widespread defence of Zeta-Jones, including a viral video from one Facebook user which said: “You bully women when they get too much work done and bully them when they don’t have enough.”

Commenters also came to her defence, with one writing: “It’s called ageing naturally and she looks beautiful.”

Others described her as “gorgeous” and “so pretty”, while someone else said that “she looks her age – that’s called reality”.

Ms White arrived for her interview at BBC Radio Wales Breakfast on Thursday makeup-free to “prove a point” and to show there was no set “template” for what a woman in her 50s should look like.

Like many women her age, she said she “takes care of herself”, not to look younger but to feel “better” and look “healthy”.

“Ageing is a privilege and if we can do it the best we can, that’s what really matters,” she added.

She argued that men were not held to the same beauty standards, adding “no-one questions how old Tom Cruise, George Clooney or Tom Jones are – they just look ‘great’.”

She said it was one of the reasons she entered Miss Great Britain’s category for over-45s, to “show that midlife women are still here” and “still have it”.

Hughes, an author and presenter from Wales, said that while mum-of-two Zeta-Jones was “gorgeous” it was “not the point”, adding she should be free to look however she liked without her age being scrutinised.

She said the online abuse showed no woman was “immune” and that women do not deserve the “constant narrative” that they are not good enough or young enough – a problem that is “galling, regardless of who the victim is”.

Asked if men face the same scrutiny, she said “no, never”, noting women were attacked simply for having the “audacity” to exist online as they aged.

Despite the beauty industry promoting “longevity”, Hughes said women were still criticised whether they aged naturally or underwent treatments like plastic surgery or injectables.

“If you age naturally, people say you should do more; if you get work done, you’re accused of not aging gracefully enough,” she added.