Gwyneth Paltrow praises women who avoid cosmetic surgery as she reflects on turning 50

Gwyneth Paltrow has applauded women who haven’t had any cosmetic surgery done to hide signs of ageing.

The Goop founder reflected on her own appearance ahead of her 50^th birthday on 27 September.

She also rejected following any “rules” about what kind of clothing women can wear at any particular age, revealing that she wore “the shortest skirt I’d worn in 10 years just the other day”.

“It was this old Chanel dress I found in the basement, and it worked,” she said in a blog post for her wellness platform. “People should wear what they feel good.”

Paltrow also spoke of her admiration or women who age without having any work done and said: “I love when you see women who have not touched their face at all, who are embracing every inch of their ageing.”

However, she also said she celebrates women who choose to undergo cosmetic surgery or treatments to look youthful.

“And then there are those women you look at and wonder, how can they be 78? How are they pulling that off? It has to be some kind of face lift or other work, and I love that too.

“People looking the way they’d like to look, feeling their best – that inspires me.”

Paltrow said she “feels great” about turning 50 and that the health decisions she made in her earlier years are “paying dividends now”.

“I’m grateful for the foundation I’ve built – my body knows what it’s doing and has some muscle memory, some strength, and some flexibility.

“But it’s important to have some grace around the ageing of your body, to be forgiving,” she added. “OK, well, maybe my skin or my muscle won’t bounce back here the way it used to, and that’s okay. You have to recalibrate.”

Paltrow pointed to actor Cameron Diaz, a close friend of hers, as a person she admires for her approach to ageing.

Diaz, who turned 50 on 30 August, also recently opened up about how ageing has affected her and the impact of unrealistic beauty standards she feels are imposed on women.

Appearing on an episode of the podcast Michelle Visage’s Rule Breakers, Diaz said that withdrawing from the spotlight has given her the space to find self-acceptance.

“The last thing I think about on a daily basis, maybe not at all during the day, is what I look like,” she told Visage.

“It’s toxic. It’s like, ’Why am I sitting here being so mean to myself? My bosy is strong; my body is capable, why am I going to talk down to it when it has carried me this far?’

“Stop looking in the mirror and stop taking selfies,” Diaz advised.