When I hit 50, I bought thigh-high boots. I feel like I’m grabbing life by the balls, says Amanda Holden
WHEN Amanda Holden turned 50 she decided it was time to make a change to her wardrobe – so she splashed out on latex dresses and some rather racy footwear.
After 15 years as the longest-serving judge on Britain’s Got Talent — which returns to ITV tonight — she has showcased outfits so daring they have drawn a flood of viewers’ complaints.
Yet Amanda did not take the landmark birthday as a cue to tone down her clothes — instead she ramped things up.
She said: “When I hit 50 I invested in a pair of thigh-high boots and I thought, ‘THIS is how I’m going to live the second half of my life’.
“On my birthday I also did a photoshoot where I was half naked on top of a birthday cake.
“I was never going to suddenly get out the twinset and pearls, unless I wore the twinset and pearls with a miniskirt and those thigh boots.”
As well as jarring with Amanda, she says her husband of 14 years, Chris Hughes, would not appreciate the demure look either.
And to all those traditionalists who think fiftysomething females should stop having sex and start covering up, she has a simple message.
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“They can just bog off,” said Amanda. “I would never listen to anybody who’s going to try to tell me how to behave or how I should dress.
“I’d say bog off to any man or woman — or they — that say that about me.
“And I don’t know anyone who is not enjoying a ‘full marriage’ within my group of friends, let’s just say that. I don’t get it — I feel very sad for people who think like that, because life should be enjoyable.
“I feel like I’m grabbing life by the balls more than I ever did before.”
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Older role models
Amanda, now 51, is proud to be part of the “first wave” of fifty-something women who have reached the top in TV by combining their sex appeal with brains and, crucially, having a thick skin.
But she fears wokery threatens to turn back the clock on female empowerment and leave the next generation of girls ill-equipped for the real world.
Amanda, who has daughters Lexi, 16, and Hollie, ten, with Chris, said: “The reason why there’s a group of women, like me, who are in their fifties and working in TV is because you ride the waves, you can’t allow yourself to get affected and upset by absolutely everything.
“You have to grow thicker skin and a backbone and push forward. That’s the only way to survive.
“I want my girls to grow up tough and not be upset by anything people say to them.
“I want them to have the confidence to snap back and have a strong opinion on something.
“I’m of the school of thought that, just because my opinion is different to yours, that does not mean you’re right or a bad person.
“But now if you’re not following the wokery line, you’re just plain wrong.
“We’re all starting to become too frightened to actually voice our opinions because you’ll lose your job over it, your career will end.
“I’ve always said I’m one sentence away from my career ending.
“Fortunately, I do actually have a filter, but everything I have said I would stand by.
“I just don’t know what this next wave of women are going to be like.”
Amanda can’t stop gushing about strong, older role models including US actors Jennifer Aniston, 53, and Jennifer Lopez, 52.
And in Britain she has just as much praise for “incredible” Strictly hosts Tess Daly, 53, and Claudia Winkleman, 50, and “smoking hot” Davina McCall, 54.
Last year Masked Singer judge Davina jokingly challenged Amanda to a “plunge off” to see which of them would dare to wear the lowest-cut dress on TV.
Amanda said: “I’ll accept that challenge, but in return I throw down the latex challenge to her.
“Yes, I want to see Davina in a bit of latex.
“Davina has the most amazing body, she’s so good at keeping fit, so I want to see her in a bit of rubber on The Masked Singer next time.
“As you’ll see, I introduced latex to Britain’s Got Talent this year and, yes, I’m planning on more for the live shows too.”
Between the latex dresses and those boots, it is obvious she doesn’t care about any conventions when it comes to “dressing your age”.
She said: “My daughter Lexi is constantly in my wardrobe borrowing my stuff. We’re the same size and when we go on holiday now we take hand luggage because we share each other’s outfits.
“She’ll be mortified that I’ve said this, but it’s true. She loves loads of stuff I wear.
“But the thigh boots she’s not having — not yet anyway.”
Amanda jokes: “It will happen one day where I’ll say, ‘You’re not going out like that’ — and she’ll be wearing one of my outfits.”
It remains to be seen what saucy numbers she has lined up for this year’s Britain’s Got Talent shows, where she rejoins the judging panel alongside Alesha Dixon, 43, David Walliams, 50, and, of course, Simon Cowell, 62.
The return of Simon is likely to gain the greatest attention — and not just because he missed the live shows of BGT in 2020 after severely injuring his back falling off his electric bike.
Viewers are also likely to be stunned by his superslim appearance.
After the accident he lost three stone thanks to radically overhauling his diet — swapping pizza and pies for soup and smoothies.
Amanda said: “He seems to have had a huge wake-up call. Having an eight-year-old son, Eric, and falling off his bike, you question your mortality.
"You never care about yourself, but the minute you have kids you want to live longer for them, you want to see them grow up and you want to see their kids too.
“I’m classed as a geriatric mum and I joke to my children all the time, ‘I hope you don’t wait as long as I did to have kids because I want to be around to be a granny’.
Cowell wedding
“And I think Simon feels the same way. I think he thought, ‘Gosh, I’ve got this amazing new chance now and I’ve got this little boy to live for’. And I’m really happy for him.
“It’s hysterical. He still has the odd fag and drinks his skinny beer. I mean, I’ve seen him take a drag from an oxygen canister then a drag from a cigarette. It’s hilarious.
"But he is cycling about 40 miles per week and when I went round for lunch at his house yesterday the food was all just so gorgeous and healthy, which is wonderful.
“The person that really made him grow up and think straight was his gorgeous fiancee Lauren.”
Simon proposed to his long-term partner, and Eric’s mother, Lauren Silverman, 44, during a holiday to Barbados in December.
With the prospect of a Cowell wedding being so thrilling, what role does Amanda see herself playing on the big day?
She said: “I’ll just be smiling on the back row of the service with David and Alesha, ready with the confetti and a glass of champagne.
"I don’t think I’ll be asked to be a bridesmaid. I think if Lauren did all that she would probably have little ones and I would think Eric would be the best man — much to David Walliams’ dismay.”
The second biggest day of Simon’s year is probably today, as Britain’s Got Talent returns to our TV screens for the first time in two years following an enforced break due to the pandemic.
But Amanda says it has turned out to be a good thing, because it has delivered a “bumper” year of talent.
She explained: “I think it is down to the fact that there are so many people who have had no opportunity workwise — whether they were amateurs or semi-professionals — to showcase what they do.
"And so many people who had two years to realise their dreams or get on with things they never had time to do before.
“Many people were stuck at home and spent time on passions of theirs that perhaps they didn’t have time for before.”
Far from feeling sad, she was actually relieved that ITV bosses agreed the show should take a year off during the pandemic, because it didn’t work without a real audience watching.
Amanda said: “BGT was suffering having a virtual audience.
“The TV execs and producers did so well putting the show on, but that screen of people clapping and flapping in the background didn’t work.
“I was desperate for it to stop because I felt like what I have always said, the audience is the fifth judge, and they weren’t there.
“And though Ashley Banjo did an incredible job standing in, Simon wasn’t there either.
“I feel people watching that kind of telly found it boring, and a constant reminder of what we were going through.
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“Watching the audience ‘on Zoom’ was like them having to talk to their friends and family and colleagues on Zoom calls, and I just thought it needed to end.
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“But now we’re back with a bang — and returning to those live auditions with a proper audience was an incredibly emotional experience — as you will see tonight.”
- Britain’s Got Talent is on ITV tonight at 8pm and tomorrow at 7.35pm.
