Denise Welch says she is only just getting started at 65 - and promised she'll still be having a good time in 30 years!
The Loose Women star celebrated the milestone today with her sexiest ever photo shoot.
Stripping off and into an array of sensational clothes for OK! Magazine, she says she's nowhere near ready to slow down.
Looking back at the highs and lows of her life and discussing her plans for the future, the telly favourite wants to party on until her 90s.
Knowing how to have a good giggle without a drink in her hand, the sober actress is very much full of life after making some big decisions in the last decade.
“When I say 65, I think of some little doddery old person, whereas I certainly don’t feel like that now,” she explained.
“When I was 60, I decided to flip the narrative in my head. You can either say, ‘Oh my God, I’m 60, I qualify for a bus pass,’ or you can say, ‘I’m only 60. I might have 30 good years ahead of me!’ My dad, up until the week he died, was pretty much partying and I want to have that love of life and be as fit as I can be until I pop my clogs.”
Denise certainly doesn’t class herself as the “drink police” and will still attend parties.
But the former Coronation Street star leaves when everyone starts “getting bladdered” - and isn't about to give up that side of her life yet.
Just over 11 years ago, Denise Welch made a decision that changed her life forever. Waking up after a night out in London, she was hit with the sobering realisation that in a drunken stupor she’d pulled a door off its hinges and smashed a vase.
After years of binge-drinking, Denise knew she had to quit alcohol for good.
The morning after the night before, her now-husband Lincoln Townley was at the foot of her bed, presenting her with a video of her antics, which she couldn’t face watching.
He continues to support her, and Denise has a huge network of friends who support her on her sobriety journey – former Loose Women panellist Carol McGiffin being one of them.
“Especially [because] of the state I was in,” she told the publication.
“I was in my early fifties and I was still drinking. When I look around at so many of my friends who are either stuck in a rut, or have that attitude of, ‘I’ve made my bed I’ve got to lie in it,’ or people who are single but don’t want to be and find it difficult to find love later in life, I feel very lucky.
“To have the marriage I have now, with someone who loves me as much as he does – I’m not religious, but I do feel blessed as they say.
"Neither of us take our marriage for granted – ever. When I say work at it, it’s not hard work, but we do prioritise it.”
Turning 65 appears to be no problem for her.
“This decade has been one of the happiest in my life for two reasons,” she added. “One is that I met my husband and I have an incredibly happy marriage that I love and I nurture. And two because I got sober.
“My life was a mess for many parts of a decade and more before. Not all the time, but I was dealing with an addiction which impacted my family and myself.”
