Courteney Cox has repeatedly been candid about surgery, so you can give it a rest

Yes, Courteney Cox joins Linda Evangelista this week in addressing the punishing rituals women exert themselves under to remain forever frozen as a twenty-year-old and her experience of social media’s ever considerate and empathetic view towards women.

Ahead of the release of her new comedy-horror TV series Shining Vale, written by Sharon Horgan and Jeff Astrof, a writer on Friends, Courteney Cox spoke to The Sunday Times Style about getting older, cosmetic procedures and media scrutiny.

Speaking of her approaching 60th birthday, Cox spoke about her past with cosmetic procedures. “Oh, I’m changing. I’m looking older. And I tried to chase that [youthfulness] for years. And I didn’t realise that, oh shit, I’m actually looking really strange with injections and doing stuff to my face that I would never do now.”

Speaking of whether to post a picture of herself on Instagram from that phase of her life next to a more current photo, she says, “I’d say, ‘The day you realise what your friends were talking about.’ Because people would talk about me, I think. But there was a period where I went, ‘I’ve got to stop. That’s just crazy.”

She says that the media scrutiny of actresses getting older “is intense, but I don’t know if it could be more intense than what I put on myself.”

It’s not the first time or even second time she’s spoken about regretting cosmetic procedures or the value we place on youth every time we splash JLo and Jennifer Anniston across the news for flashing and ab and celebrate them for ‘ageing gracefully.’

“What would end up happening is that you go to a doctor who would say “You look great, but what would help is a little injection here of filler there,”’ she told New Beauty. “Before you know it, you’re layered and layered. Getting older is just hard in general,’ she said. ‘I feel better than I’ve ever felt in my entire life…But Hollywood – this business – makes it harder.”

She also spoke about ageing to Bear Grylls, of all people, in Ireland no less. “Being a woman in this business, getting older, that’s not the easiest thing. But I have learned lessons. I think I was trying to keep up with getting older and trying to chase that. It’s something you can’t keep up with.”

“Sometimes you find yourself trying and then you look at a picture of yourself and you go, ‘Oh god, I look horrible,’” she continued. “I have done things that I regret and luckily there are things that dissolve and go away. So that’s good, because it’s not always been my best look.”

“People can be mean though, on social media. The comments, if I ever want to feel really bad about myself I just click on one of those Daily Mail comments.”

If you’ve ventured into the comments section of that Style interview, any Daily Mail comments section or the comments after multiple tabloids called her some version of stony-faced after her press interviews for Scream, you’ll have seen that yourself, on top of that same sentiment social media gave to Linda Evangelista – she deserves it for her vanity.

So, in essence, Monica Geller had surgery so no one would say she looked bad for ageing, they did anyway, so she said she had surgery so no would say she looked bad for ageing, so they said she looked bad and was also vain for trying to not look bad in the first place. Lather, rinse, repeat. Can you tell I’m fed up writing the same version of this story? At this point, I’d add a bit about why you should get surgery if you want and don’t get surgery if you don’t want and regardless, do it for you. But if you’re here, I know I’m preaching to the converted, or just giving someone ammunition to get firing in the comments. So yes, Courteney Cox got surgery. She’s said that multiple times. She knows you didn’t like it. She’s said that multiple times. Give it a rest. Stop telling women how to look so this cycle of perpetual hell can end for all of us.

Photography by @courteneycoxofficial.