Caroline Quentin regrets worrying about her looks

Caroline Quentin wishes she didn’t spend so much of her youth worrying about her looks.

The 60-year-old actress revealed she has become more comfortable in her own skin as she has gotten older and she now regrets time spent worrying about her hair, weight and fashion choices.

When asked what advice she would give her younger self, Caroline told Good Housekeeping: “I know exactly what I’d say: ‘Stop apologising for who you are and start being who you are.’ If I had my time again, I’d stop worrying about the perception of oneself: what you look like, how you sound, what you say and what you wear.

“I’d get on with being me and actually knowing that I’m good enough. We women are so tough on ourselves.

“We screw up, make mistakes, put on weight, have terrible haircuts, buy horrible jumpers – but so what? I’m still doing that!

“I’m out and proud with my terrible haircuts and jumpers. I think my younger self would be amazed at the way my life has turned out, actually.”

Caroline explained that turning 60 was the catalyst for her starting to be kinder to herself.

She said: “I suddenly thought: ‘I have less time ahead of me than I have behind me – what am I going to do? What do I want to do?

“My children are well and they’re growing up, so I decided to start doing things that I fancy doing; things that I haven’t done before and will be a bit of a challenge.

“It’s almost a mindset, I think. I’m not really frightened of much anymore. I care much less about what people think about me (except my family, obviously).

“As an actor, you tend to have to be a bit of a people-pleaser, and I think that I just don’t really care about that so much anymore.”

Read the full interview with Caroline Quentin in the February issue of Good Housekeeping, on sale now.