It’s my birthday this week – I will be 63
It’s my birthday this week – I will be 63. I have asked my children and grandchildren for no presents and no fuss, just for them to cook me a nice meal. All I want at this stage in my life is their time and their love.
Anyway, I have had plenty of big parties. Take my 40th birthday on tour with The Rolling Stones. We were in Tokyo, partying in the Hard Rock Cafe, sharing a bottle of saké that had a lizard in the bottom.
Whoever finished it had to eat the lizard’s tail. Was it me? Of course it was. It was my birthday, after all.
I danced the night away and woke up the next day clutching a jacket that said ‘Party Central’ on the back. ‘Thanks a lot,’ I thought as I suffered what was easily the worst hangover of my life.
It topped even my 30th birthday at home in London. The Monty Python stars were there. ‘I’d love to be in a movie,’ I told Graham Chapman halfway through the evening. When I woke up next morning, I had an invitation to an audition in my pocket. I landed a role playing a drug addict called Lottie who’d gone into rehab. It was my first and last foray into the film business but a great birthday present.
My 50th was the only big birthday which bothered me. There was a huge party happening in the garden but I was sitting on my bed crying. My sister came to find me. ‘I don’t want to be 50,’ I remember sobbing. ‘I don’t feel it, I don’t feel this age.’
‘Yep, and there is nothing you can do about it, so pull yourself together, get your gladrags on and get down to your guests,’ she told me. Wise advice.
Leah Wood, Jesse Wood, Ronnie Wood and Jo Wood celebrate daughter Leah Wood’s 21st birthday
Nothing could have been more memorable than my 21st. Having been with my first husband since I was 17, I pretty much got my divorce papers as a birthday present. I went home to my mum and dad in Essex with my son Jamie. They cooked me dinner and Mum made me a cake, and that was that.
I’d already crammed a lot in by then and have continued to do so. I’ve always bridled at being the youngest, but I’m not any more – I’m one of the family elders now and my sister’s advice increasingly makes sense.
The only thing you can do about ageing is to enjoy every moment and appreciate your life, because the older you get, the faster it goes.
- Jo Wood , 62, is a model, TV celebrity, entrepreneur and ex-wife of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood. She has four children – two with Ronnie – and ten grandchildren, and lives in London
Life lessons with Lesley Manville: ‘My toughest role was raising my son alone’
Actress Lesley Manville, 61, was married to Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman, with whom she has a son. She was nominated for an Oscar this year for her performance in Phantom Thread.
The best piece of advice I’ve ever had is ‘act better’. It was early in my career and it was from a bad director, but it’s stuck. I’ve been striving to act better ever since.
‘I’m leaving you’ is the worst thing anyone can say to you. I’m not that bothered about other things people say. I read my reviews – if someone doesn’t like a performance, then fine. I don’t think ‘Christ, it’s all over.’
It was hard raising a son alone and keeping a career going. I did only theatre until he was three. It meant I could be with him all day, then a nanny would come at 5pm. He would be up all night and I had no one to help me. I ran my life, my child’s life, did all the shopping and housework and did plays in the evenings. I never let the ball drop with my son or with work.
My most treasured possession is a black picture frame. On one side is a picture of my son when he was ten. On the other is a button which plays a message he recorded for me for my birthday the same year. It’s his little voice before it broke and it’s heartbreaking.
I would have liked more children. I’ve got one but I would have loved to have more. I grew up with two sisters and thought I’d have three or four children.
Stronger punishments are needed for perpetrators of child abuse because they’ve damaged a life. It’s not just the moment the abuse happened but the emotional and mental scarring that child has in their life for ever.
l Phantom Thread is out on DVD, Blu-ray and for digital download in May.