Brooke Shields on how women in their 50s are like wine: 'You hit this certain age and there's a richness to you'
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There are a lot of misconceptions about aging, and Brooke Shields is trying to set the record straight — especially when it comes to what's considered an "old person's wine."
Shields, who turns 57 this month, spoke with Yahoo Life about her work with Clos du Bois's "Long Live" campaign, for which she argues that Chardonnay is not a wine for "old people."
"What they were trying to do was flip the script on aging and ageism," says Shields. "There's this misconception — like calling Chardonnay an 'old person's wine' and putting it aside — but truth be told, like wine, we get better with age."
In an ad directed by fellow 50-something Courtney Cox, Shields instead makes the case that Chardonnay is the perfect wine for "people who like to live a little." She says Cox is another perfect example of this sentiment.
"It's about changing the narrative to talk about vitality and confidence," she says. "You hit this certain age and there's a richness to you. You're just beginning new things."
"Courtney, who is a friend of mine, is a perfect example of shifting," Shields adds. "Her daughter is older and now she's directing and she learned to play the piano. There's so much that happens when you have the freedom to actually live your life more for you and less for the people around you."
Shields says she and husband Chris Henchy, who share two teenage daughters, are fully embracing their life in New York City.
"We live next door to a restaurant and we actually can see into each other's kitchen," she says. "We love going to that restaurant and just sitting at the bar. My husband is kind of a creature of habit, but we're so lucky in New York that in a radius of two blocks there's almost every type of food and it's just so good. We really do love food."
Their go-to cuisine? Indian.
"It's one of my favorites," she shares. "We went to India a few years ago and we were in Varanasi at one point, which is an intense experience, and they had amazing vegetarian food there. My daughters and I ate so much food and were so happy and felt so good at the end of a few days being there."
As a child, Shields recalls her tastes being more simple. She and her mother would special treats to bring into Upper East Side movie theaters.
"Growing up we were not the kind of family that sat down to dinner," she says. "One thing we used to do, which I loved, was we would go get sandwiches from our favorite deli and we would take them into the movie theater and watch multiple movies.
"We found a way to quietly eat the sandwiches," she adds. "[My favorite kind of sandwich was] turkey, lettuce, tomato and Swiss on toasted wheat or a bagel ... but sometimes bagels got a little loud so we'd have to save them for action movies."
And what are Shields's favorite wine pairings?
"To be honest, I drink a lot of things," she jokes, "but as far as pairings are concerned, it's [more about] if I like the taste of the wine."
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