Over time you realise beating yourself up has never really done any good

Actor, model and entrepreneur Brooke Shields has hit a new phase in her life - and she's ready to talk about it.

- PRUDENCE WADE

AT 59 years old, Brooke Shields is "really tired" of caring what people think.

She's certainly experienced public scrutiny for long enough. Brooke started modelling as a young child, reaching widespread notoriety in the 1978 film Pretty Baby, where she played a girl being raised in a brothel, with nude scenes shot when she was just 11 years old.

"You get really tired after a certain period of time," Brooke now says.

Since starting out as a child star, Brooke modelled for Calvin Klein and went on to act in various 1980s dramas (such as The Blue Lagoon), and later, sitcoms including Suddenly Susan and Lipstick Jungle - all the while, her personal life and relationships with fellow celebrities (her 1997 marriage to tennis star Andre Agassi lasted for two years) hitting the headlines.

Over time, she says, she realised that "beating yourself up" has "never really done you any good" and makes you "more angst-ridden".

"You realise that there's enough of that coming at you from the world," she says.

"What if you just go: I like what I've done. I like who I am - sure, there have been highs and lows, but isn't it nice to still want more, to still get excited about things, to still be emotionally available and crea-tively inspired?

"That is age, that's experience, that's having gone through life to the best of my ability, mistakes and all - but I'm proud of it, and being here and going: you've done OK."

Brooke jokes that she had a real moment of "I think I did all right for myself" after suffering a seizure triggered by low sodium in 2023.