When I met Sadie Frost recently at Cliveden House Hotel to chat about turning 60, what she shared with me was a story that most women in midlife could hard relate to.
As a single mother of four children, Sadie may have seemed to have had a glamorous time skipping around Soho with Kate Moss and the rest of the Primrose Hill posse, but the reality was school runs, sports kits, ferrying the children in four different directions between their dad’s, their friends, and putting her own career on pause to support her family first.
However, she made a shrewd move that really inspired me. Instead of giving up work entirely, she quietly kept training and keeping her brain sharp in areas that interested her. It meant when her children finally left the nest and she had her own time back, these small steps had given her the confidence to follow her passion and go full throttle into training for her second act career, which in her case was as a director.
“It's just about how we can all live as big a life as we can,” Sadie, who recently directed the Twiggy documentary, told me over a cup of tea. “We've done our parenting years, now it's us. What do we get to fulfil ourselves in this stage?
“You have to go out and create your own opportunities, but whether you're making a high powered film or having family time or just staying at home doing some gardening and baking some bread, everything you can do in your life could be something that is fulfilling.
“All my life, I've always loved educating myself with whatever it is. When I was younger, I did yoga courses or massage courses or film courses. And since I’ve been in my 50s and my kids left home you just have so much more time, when you're not doing a school run and having their diaries to deal with, so that was when I did my MA in film studies.”
Entering a new chapter
On a recent yoga teacher training trip to India, Sadie met some women who echoed her sentiments. “There were so many more women in their 50s and 60s. And they were saying, when I was younger, I didn't have the money to do this. I didn't have the time, it was all about their families.”
She has been practicing yoga her whole life after her mother taught her as a child, and now is hosting retreats and regular charity classes at the community centre in Primrose Hill. Yoga and her love of the spiritual world also inspired her to launch a range of vegan Frost Chakra tote bags, which she used to carry her mat around India.
“Now I’m at a kind of landmark time in my 60s, how do I see the next 20 years?” says Sadie as she reflects on her stage in life. “By practising yoga and being open-minded, creative, alive, you know, constantly evolving, changing, it helps you evolve into a fuller person.
© Instagram“I think you should just really be true to yourself and be able to express yourself how you believe your true essence is rather than being pigeonholed into what other people tell you.
“That always comes down to natural beauty and just being who you are and radiating happiness, health and individuality. And also, things do pass.”
So as the kids start to knuckle down for their exams in the coming weeks, perhaps take a leaf out of Sadie’s book and get out the prospectus and plan what is next for you in your second act of life. It could be something truly life-changing.
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