Paulina Porizkova is acknowledging turning 60 with some candid thoughts on the realities of aging.
The Czech supermodel and author, who celebrated her birthday April 9, shared a pair of makeup- and filter-free photos on Instagram Monday.
In the first image, she appeared to be soaking up the sun in a bikini, posing playfully in a beach cabana. The second, however, showed her standing in front of a bathroom mirror in her underwear beneath harsh overhead light.
“This is me. Vacation, pretty light, posing for a shot,” Porizkova wrote in the accompanying caption. “This is also me. Home, not great light, not posing.”
Her body, she said, was a reflection of “60 years of doing the right things followed by doing the wrong things and over again and again,” adding, “It’s 60 years of learning of what works and what doesn’t. And just as I think I’ve figured it out, everything changes and I have to start again.”
She concluded, “The beauty of 60 is that now I understand the importance is IN the lesson, not passing the exam.”
By Tuesday afternoon, Porizkova’s post had drawn an assortment of gushing comments from fans, who called her remarks “honest” and “inspiring.”
“Words can’t express how thankful I am for women like you, Paulina. Keeping it real,” one person wrote. “You are beautiful inside and out. Age is just a number. I wish more women felt beautiful in their own skin.”
Added another: “I wish our culture appreciated aging beauty. The wisdom under our aging bodies is more valuable than youth could ever be.”
Porizkova rose to prominence in the 1980s, gracing the covers of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and other outlets while modeling for the likes of Christian Dior, Versace and Calvin Klein. She and musician Ric Ocasek, frontman of the legendary ’80s rock group The Cars, were married from 1989 until his death in 2019.
Earlier this month, Porizkova and writer Jeff Greenstein announced their engagement after about two years of dating. Appearing on NBC’s “Today” in January, she said she hoped to use her platform to change the conversation around aging and beauty.
“We’re so scared of wrinkles, have you noticed that?” she explained. “We are so terrified of wrinkles because I suppose wrinkles make us no longer relevant, no longer sexy, no longer desirable, and as women, that has been sort of our calling card … And I keep looking at wrinkles, mine, yours, any woman that I see, and I think, ‘It’s your map of life. I see how you are as a person.’”
Watch Paulina Porizkova’s “Today” interview below.
