Paulina Porizkova says it’s ‘really freaking hard to be a woman over 50.’
The 54-year-old model believes she has hit the ‘dead zone’ in her career, which she describes as being in between ‘J-Lo looking fabulous’ and veteran actress Betty White.
She also recalled how she was turned down for a job because she has not altered her face. ‘I did one of my, “Look at me. This is my face without make-up” [posts]. And I’ve never used botox or fillers. And this job that I was up for went, “Oh, well, we can’t use you then,'” she told CBS Sunday Morning.
Frank talk: Paulina Porizkova says it’s ‘really freaking hard to be a woman over 50.’ The 54-year-old model believes she has hit the ‘dead zone’ in her career, which she describes as being in between ‘J-Lo looking fabulous’ and veteran actress Betty White she told CBS Sunday Morning
The hottest thing going: Here she posed in her underwear on a white bed in 1985
Asked by co-host Anthony Mason: ‘How do you feel about that?’ and she replied: ‘I used to be kind of judgmental about it.
‘I used to go, “Oh, you know, I can’t believe that anybody’s injecting themselves and changing the way they look.”
‘And now I think, “No, you know what? It’s really freaking hard to be a woman. And it’s really freaking hard to be a woman over 50. Because we really get dismissed from the table.”‘
She said: ‘We have, like, a weird period between, you’re J-Lo looking fabulous and then Betty White.
On top of her game: Paulina was considered the It girl of her time; seen on SI in the 1980s
Catty: The star posed with a black cat in this shot shared in 1985
‘And there’s kind of like a dead zone between the two. So, I’m trying to fill that dead zone!’
Paulina was just a teenager when she moved to Paris to embark on a modelling career and made the prestigious Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue at the age of 18 in 1984.
The Czech actress-and-author – who was previously married to the late frontman of The Cars, Ric Ocasek, for 28 years until May 2018 – also admitted that to this day she still feels like an ‘imposter’ and detailed her battle with low self-esteem, which she believes is down to being left behind by her parents when she was young as they escaped the communist regime in her home country.
On the runway: The catwalk favorite is seen here in 1987 as she modeled Anne Klein resort
She shared: ‘In some ways, I still think I’m waiting to be found an imposter. Even now!’
She continued: ‘I always like to say about myself I am a woman of very high ego, but zero self-esteem.
‘My parents left me when I was little. They left because they were escaping the communist regime. ‘But I think being left, that sort of just stuck with me forever, that I’m really not that great.
‘And as soon as you find out how not-great I am, you will also leave me.’
Still stunning: Thanks to constant workouts, Paulina still has a great figure; seen in 2019
But when talking about her dislike for modeling when she was young she says it was true: modeling was not her favorite job.
‘It’s true; I don’t really love modeling,’ Porizkova stated. ‘But what it afforded me was the world.’
But the world loved her look and her story: ‘In the ’80s I was exotic because I was from an Eastern European country, and I had this story; I was a refugee. And it sort of catapulted me into the big time.’
After her interview she said she was ‘exhausted.’
The star talked about feeling betrayed by husband of 30 years Ric Ocasek of the Cars after he died last year. The singer had cut her out of his will.
It took a toll on her: Porizkova opened her heart about being betrayed by husband Ric Ocasek. And soon after the beauty said she was ‘exhausted’ by the whole experience
Paulina shared a screen grab from her interview.
‘CBS Sunday morning this morning,’ she began.
‘I was so exhausted after doing this interview- which is utterly unlike me- generally I like being in the spotlight. But thanks to Anthony Mason and producer Gabriel Falcon, I got through it, feeling completely wrung out but also safe. It’s so amazing to know I trusted the right people this time.
‘Side note: it’s flabbergasting to see yourself this naked. Photo of TV monitor by @annatonics.’
One of her hashtags read ‘older and better.’
The post before that was a shot CBS set up to roll in her home. It was shared before the interview aired.
‘My living room being prepared for my interview with the wonderful Anthony Mason , which will air tomorrow on CBS Sunday morning ( and happens to be the one program I watch religiously every Sunday while knitting and having my coffee). Thanks Gabriel Falcon for producing this segment,’ wrote the star.
She faced a terrible loss when her husband of 30 years Ocasek died in September 2019.
The pain only grew worse when she found out the Cars musician cut her out of his will as he instructed, ‘Paulina is not entitled to any elective share … because she has abandoned me.’
She said this ‘made the grieving process really, really tricky.’
A very hard time: The supermodel said she was ‘hurt’ after Ric cut her out of his will before he died; seen in 2007. They had separated in 2017
The beauty told CBS anchor Mason, ‘I would love to be able to be sad and miss him, and not also feel this incredible hurt and betrayal.’
His will, which was seen by PageSix, read: ‘I have made no provision for my wife Paulina Porizkova as we are in the process of divorcing. Even if I should die before our divorce is final … Paulina is not entitled to any elective share … because she has abandoned me.’
They had not yet finalized their divorce after separating in 2017.
Power couple: In 1990 they were arm in arm at a charity event. She was at the top of her modeling car and he was a thriving rock star
She could not have really abandoned Ric because Paulina was the one who found Ric after he died. She was bringing him his morning coffee as he needed help after a recent surgery which he was recovering well from.
Porizkova told Mason finding her husband dead was ‘the worst moment of my life.’
After he died she said in a statement that she ‘touched his cheek to rouse him’ from sleep but then she discovered he was dead.
‘Ric was at home recuperating very well after surgery,’ she wrote in a statement shared to Instagram.
Now a single mom: With her sons Jonathan (L) and Oliver (R) at the screening Of Thor in 2011
‘Our two sons, Jonathan and Oliver, and I were making sure he was comfortable, ordering food and watching TV together.
‘I found him still asleep when bringing him his Sunday morning coffee.
‘I touched his cheek to rouse him. It was then I realized that during the night he had peacefully passed on. We appreciate the great outpouring of love. We, his family and friends, are completely and utterly devastated by his untimely and unexpected death and would appreciate the privacy to mourn in private.’
He died from hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
In December she shared that she was struggling.
Makeup free often: The siren shares all kinds of photos of Instagram and many are of her makeup free
‘Peeps, I’m not good. Grief. Anger. No stable ground below me at the moment — insecurity in every pertinent and important area of my future,’ Porizkova wrote. ‘I’m breaking a little under the weight of it all.’
Also in the CBS interview Paulina talked about how when she met Ric on a Cars video it was ‘love at first sight.’
And he made her feel secure.
‘I loved the security of having a mate that was older and wiser,’ Porizkova said. ‘Rejection and loneliness were such traumatic specters in my life. And being with a man who possessed me, who fully possessed me, was really comforting.’
And now that Ric has passed without an explanation of why he cut her out of the will, she is struggling.
‘Yesterday I was kind of having a nervous breakdown,’ she laughed. ‘And today I’m feeling a little bit stronger.
‘And in a way, this is freeing me. It’s really, really scary. I didn’t necessarily want it.
‘But this is what I got. And so, I have to learn how to use my wings now.’
