The trailblazing, glamorous grandmothers, who don’t shy away from dating apps and wouldn’t be caught dead in ‘big granny knickers’
WORDS: JANE GORDON AND BELLA BATTLE © DAILY MAIL. PHOTOS: MARK HARRISON AND LEZLI+ROSE/DAILY MAIL/SOLO SYNDICATION
‘WE STILL HAVE BOUNDLESS ENERGY FOR FUN, SEX AND ADVENTURE’
Jane Gordon, 67, is a journalist and author. She lives in Oxfordshire and is mother to Bryony, 42, Naomi, 40, and Rufus, 30 – and grandmother to Edie, nine.
When my elder daughter announced her pregnancy 10 years ago, I was shocked by the reaction of some of my friends. Then in my late 50s, I received messages and a handful of greeting cards that seemed to regard my becoming a grandparent as confirmation that I had reached ‘old age’. ‘Not long now!’ one friend wrote inside a card that pictured a wizened old woman doubled up over a Zimmer frame.
I knew this was a joke – and of course on the happy day of my granddaughter’s birth, I didn’t suddenly and dramatically change into an old fossil. Neither have I done so almost 10 years later, at the age of 67. Yet ever since, I have had to fight this strange societal directive that, as a grandmother, I should behave in a way that is ‘seemly’.
After all, women are living longer, healthier lives and, whether society likes it or not, we still have boundless energy for fun, sex and adventure. Last year, I signed up to online dating. And whereas in the past, the idea that grannies could still enjoy flirtation was deemed distasteful, my contemporaries are tearing up the rules.
I’m not a slave to looking young and don’t much fancy plastic surgery. I am, though, like most women, anxious to stay looking good and feeling healthy for as long as I can. I walk four miles a day, love shopping at Zara, and try to keep my brain fresh with new projects.
From the fabulous Carole Middleton (voted the most glamorous grandmother in 2013) through force of nature Goldie Hawn, 77, to the outrageous Sharon Osbourne, 70, the world is full of inspiring women fighting against the repressive stereotype of ‘gran’.
Indeed, I regard being a ‘kooky, unhinged grandma’ as one of the most important ways in which I can help my granddaughter Edie to grow up to become a confident, fulfilled woman.
Just last month I spent a glorious week as her full-time, live-in carer while her parents holidayed in the Maldives and, for me, those days in London felt like the most wonderful five-star holiday. We went clothes shopping together, we sang and danced to pop star Olivia Rodrigo and every evening, after her bath, we had our ‘happy hour’
