Candice Bergen, who turns 80 in May, has a few thoughts about what the milestone really means to her.
“I’m in denial! I’m just in total denial. I don’t even want to talk about it. Being 80 is just unfathomable to me,” Bergen told AARP in an interview published on Tuesday.
The five-time Emmy winner says she feels “the same,” even though she isn’t sugarcoating the realities of growing older.
“You feel like you always felt. Except maybe you walk a little bit slower and more carefully, because you don’t want to fall. So stepping off a curb is a big event for me,” she said.
To stay healthy, Bergen says she works out five days a week with a trainer who she’s known for years.
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“It’s very little cardio; I barely break a sweat. I said today, ‘You’re just trying to keep me alive, right?’ It’s just to remember how to move stuff, keep your joints … to get the blood pumping a little bit,” she said.
When asked about the best thing about growing older, Bergen said she treasures time with her grandchildren and has learned to appreciate what she calls “the grace of getting older.”
“It’s a gift. It’s not always the purest gift, but it’s important to be grateful for it,” she added.
Even as she approaches a new decade, Bergen says she is not ready to slow down just yet.
“Also, turning 80 is not what it used to be. My father died at 75, and at the time, I remember thinking, Well, that’s a full life. I’m 79, and it is not a full life,” Bergen said. “I count on being there for my grandson’s graduation from high school. Hopefully, my granddaughter. Well, that would make me almost historic.”
Bergen isn’t the only celebrity who has shared their thoughts about aging.
In November, Jane Fonda said turning 60 made her rethink how she wanted to spend the rest of her life.
“This is the beginning of my final act. And I didn’t know how to live it. So I thought, well, what am I most afraid of?” Fonda said during a podcast. “I’m afraid of dying with a lot of regrets. I watched my dad die with a lot of regrets. That was an important realization for me, because if you don’t want to die with regrets, then you have to live the last part of your life in such a way that there won’t be any regrets.”
In December, Kate Winslet said that turning 50 changed the way she saw success and her self-worth.
“Success, actually, for me more these days is more about pulling it off, being a decent person. You know, being able to take care of people, having time for friends, also learning how to be OK with not being busy all the time,” she told Newsweek.
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