The moment sneaked up on Brooke Shields when she wasn’t expecting it.
“I was strolling through the streets of downtown New York with my daughters,” recalls the actor. “Over the years, I’ve become used to being recognised on the street, but this time was different. The looks weren’t cast in my direction, but at the two beauties by my side.
“I had every single feeling at once. ‘What are you doing ogling my babies?’ But also, ‘Aren’t they gorgeous?’ And also, ‘Wait, no one’s gazing at me? When did that happen? Am I over?’”
One thing’s for certain: Brooke is not past her prime just yet. With her 60th birthday looming in May, the Suddenly Susan star is still grabbing headlines – right now with her new autobiography, Brooke Shields is Not Allowed to Get Old.
In the memoir, Brooke, who shot to fame as a 14-year-old in the controversial 1978 movie Pretty Baby, pulls no punches about her experiences with ageing.
At a routine dermatology appointment, she recalls, “The doctor, unsolicited, waved his hand around my face and said, ‘We could fix all that.’
“‘All what?’ I asked. ‘You know, all the’ – cue more hand waving – ‘you know.’

“What the hell? Who asked your opinion? I’m 59 – not even 60! I may not be playing the ingenue, but I’m not exactly the grandmother in Titanic. Suddenly you have a line on your face and that one little wrinkle carries more weight than decades of accomplishments.”
Then there was the man she encountered in a social situation who froze her out when she mentioned her age.
“Oh, man,” she recalls him saying. “You really shouldn’t have told me that.”
She explains, “Clearly, I should be ashamed to be almost 60 because that meant I could no longer have sex appeal. Well, newsflash. I’m not on this planet for the sole purpose of making you feel virile.”
Throughout her younger years, Brooke was famously managed by her alcoholic mother Teri, who put Brooke, her only child, forward for the 1980 teen sexual-awakening movie Blue Lagoon, and also the iconic 1983 Life Magazine cover featuring Brooke in a skimpy red bikini.
It was partly due to Teri, Brooke now says, that she wed tennis ace Andre Agassi in 1997.
“My mum had been a hugely controlling force in my life and when I married my first husband Andre Agassi, I walked into another controlling, rigid relationship and for a while I did whatever he said.”
But she also concedes, “One of the reasons I married him was that I liked being in a relationship with someone more famous than I was. It was a relief to be able to slink into the background a bit.”

In 1999, the same year she divorced Andre, she began dating film producer/director Chris Henchy, now 60. This year, the pair, who share daughters Rowan, 21, and Grier, 18, will celebrate their 24th wedding anniversary.
Menopause, Brooke says, has taken a toll on her libido and sometimes she pretends to be asleep “when I know my husband is in the mood. It’s not great, I know.
“I was talking to a doctor recently and ended up receiving a lecture about how important sex is to a relationship, how couples need it to connect.
“My gynaecologist says I should take testosterone – sure, I might get a few more whiskers, but that’s what tweezers are for.
“But I’m not there yet. For now, I’m counting on the old ‘the more you have it, the more you’ll enjoy it’ approach.”
Brooke also reveals she underwent surgery to reduce the size of her vaginal labia because they were causing her discomfort.
She tells, “It’s like you’re in a boxing gym and you have two little speed bags between your legs.”
When she woke from the four-hour operation, her surgeon told her, “I tightened you up a little bit. Gave you a little rejuvenation. After two kids, everything is looser.”

Brooke had both of her daughters by Caesarean and the actor says she felt shocked. “There was a real, ‘I threw this in for free, little lady’ vibe to his delivery.”
She considered suing him but decided she didn’t want the inevitable publicity.
When it comes to beauty procedures, the star goes as far as the odd bit of Botox and occasional Fraxel laser treatment that helps to even out skin tone.
She’s a proponent of women focusing on what’s great about their looks rather than what they dislike.
“We shame women for not looking like they did as teens,” she reflects. “And then shame them for any intervention they undergo to look younger.
“What I’ve come to realise is these ‘later’ years are about coming into your own and pivoting in the directions you’ve always wanted to go.”