Joanna confesses to collagen

Joanna Lumley is a smooth operator at sixty.

11 April 2012

Her ageless beauty has attracted admirers for decades. But Joanna Lumley, who turned 60 last week, has revealed that her looks are no longer absolutely natural.

The actress admitted to having regular collagen injections in her forehead and mouth to stop her looking 'old and tired'.

'I've had collagen to fill out a scar on my chin,' she said. 'I've also used it on deep lines across my forehead. It can stop you looking very worried or very tired, and I don't need that.

'Hard lines by the mouth too - you don't need them. Never on the lips though. I can't think of anything worse.'

Collagen is a naturally occurring protein which degenerates with age and over-exposure to the sun, and can be replenished by injection.

As such it is often regarded as one of the gentler, more natural cosmetic procedures.

However its longevity is variable and in some cases individuals may need a top up every four to six weeks.

Miss Lumley laments that, despite her efforts, she still has 'tons and tons' of wrinkles. But she insists that unless 'something went badly wrong', she would never consider plastic surgery.

'I think if you're happy and smile a lot then people just don't see the wrinkles so much,' she told Hello! magazine.

'They just see the laughter lines. How nice to have them - it would be strange if we didn't.

'As an actress you've got to have a face that looks as though it's natural. The thing is, today, you do all the things that you can.

'I've always coloured my hair and if I hadn't, I'd be grey and I'd look so much older.

'It doesn't worry me about getting old. I love it. It's hysterical; I'm now a senior citizen but technically I can't make it work in my mind. I have no intention of it changing my life.'

It is the first time that Miss Lumley, who is married to her second husband, conductor Stephen Barlow, has admitted to having had any cosmetic help with her appearance.

Her comments come a year after she was voted the sexiest woman of her generation.

The survey, by Good Housekeeping, magazine, categorised female celebrities by decade age and Miss Lumley won the title for 'women in their fifties' against competition from Jane Seymour, Helen Mirren, Michael Caine's wife Shakira, Sharon Osbourne and Marie Helvin.

Miss Lumley, a mother of one and grandmother of two, became a universal pin-up after starring in the cult seventies show, The New Avengers.

She achieved massive success as the champagne-swilling Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous and is currently

filming a new BBC show, Jam And Jerusalem, alongside her Ab Fab partner Jennifer Saunders.

She provided the voice of Ermintrude the cow in a new bigscreen adaptation of The Magic Roundabout.

Some experts were sceptical that collagen was the only cosmetic device Miss Lumley had resorted to.

Cosmetic surgeon Dr Lucy Glancey said she believed she may have also used Botox. 'In more recent pictures her eyes look wider and her eyebrows higher - only Botox can do that,' she said.

'It is also very unusual to have collagen on its own as it would only last a month. If you have a mix of collagen and Botox it can last up to five months.

'I would think she has had both Botox and collagen around her eyes and on her forehead, while possibly just collagen on the nose to mouth line.'

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