Mariella Frostrup on being 40 on television

Mariella Frostrup is 46 - and still gorgeous, says Kathryn Knight in the Daily Mail. But the broadcaster and journalist doesn't mind admitting that getting older is a miserable business. "Is anyone not bothered by it?" she wonders.

"I remember, years ago, an older friend saying, 'You have no idea what it's like to walk into a party and have no one look at you.' And I thought, 'Don't be ridiculous - no one really looks at me.' And then I walked into a party and no one did look, and I thought, 'Hello, I must be 40.'"

Working in the age-obsessed television industry doesn't help, either. "I feel very lucky to still be here," she says, "although I
always tried to base my career on not doing the easy things you
can get by being reasonably decent-looking, because your choices
quickly run out with your looks.

Every day I say to my husband, 'This is great for as long as it lasts.' I don't feel it; I know it - there's no way I'm going to be on television when I'm 60, unless it's on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, desperately trying to resurrect my career.

In fact, you can feel the wolves circling when you get more and more offers from the reality shows. You can feel them thinking, 'She needs us now.'" ·