'Getting old is a choice': Demi Moore on ageing and why she feels the most free she's ever been

Demi Moore is experiencing something she’s never felt before - true freedom, at 63-years-old.

The Oscar-nominated star of films including The Substance and Ghost has opened up and revealed where she stands on the possibility of looking for a romantic partner again, and why, now, with her life not revolving around a man or children, she’s enjoying life as if it’s “a fruit I’ve never tasted that is so delicious”.

In a candid interview, she shared, “This is probably the most autonomous my life has been. I’m a single woman. My children are grown. To be where I am, in this singularity, where my life is more my own than it’s ever been.”

Speaking with Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, she added, "This agency, this autonomy that I’m having the privilege to experience now, it’s almost like a fruit I’ve never tasted that is so delicious.

"My schedule’s my own. It’s not built around the children or the family or a partner.

"I had a lot of responsibility very young. I was a mother very young and had a family and a husband. I wasn’t afforded to have that type of autonomy that comes with a freedom that perhaps some people experience in their younger years."

Does this mean she’s ruling out the idea of a future romance? Not so.

"And it doesn’t mean I’m closed to the idea of partnership and my family is really still everything. But I’m not identified as a couple. I am out in the world just as myself. Right now, because it’s so new, that is the thing that is moving life."

As she steps into a sense of freedom and opportunity, Demi is also acutely aware of how differently she views ageing - and how the concept has shifted for women over the generations.

"I was recently having a conversation, about not the world changing around us, but that we, as women are changing how we’re seeing ourselves. I think there’s been a misperception that ageing and getting older are the same thing. And they’re not.

"Ageing is an incredible gift and getting old is a mindset. Getting old is a choice."

She added, "There was just not a blueprint to prepare emotionally for potential apathy that all of a sudden doesn’t feel like your personality, doesn’t feel like you, like something’s missing.

"It’s why I think women have historically felt that this time, post 50, that they’ve become invisible."

Despite being aware of the scrutiny her industry puts on looks - especially for women as they age - the Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle star has redefined what she wants to hold on to as she gets older, with a focus on longevity that goes beyond the surface level.

She explained, "My value is not based on the outside of who I am, but the inside of who I’ve become… I think that where longevity has moved versus this eye of anti ageing, anti ageing was about fighting something. We’re fighting something that’s inevitable. It’s a waste energetically."

For Demi, it’s all about what she’s getting out of life - making time for gratitude and focusing on the "fundamentals - quality sleep, high quality healthy food, meditation, creating a sense of familiarity and calm wherever I am in the world."