Doris Day certainly got a surprise on her birthday this year. The Calamity Jane film star celebrated her 95th birthday on Monday – and not her 93rd, as expected. Up until this weekend, Doris had marked a 1924 birth date, but a copy of her birth certificate, obtained from Ohio's Office of Vital Statistics, confirmed that Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff was in fact born on 3 April 1922 to parents Alma and William Kappelhoff of Cincinnati.
Doris Day celebrated her 95th birthday on 3rd April - not her 93rd, as expected
In a statement released on Sunday, Doris said: "I've always said that age is just a number. I have never paid much attention to birthdays, but it's great to finally know how old I really am." Her spokesperson Charley Cullen Walters added: "There has long been speculation and rumours about Doris' age and we get this question a lot; looks like we finally have the answer. The story I have heard the most is that at one point Doris was up for a role when quite young and her age may have been miswritten on the audition form. We don't know if that's correct, but if so it could have simply stuck for all these years."
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The Calamity Jane star pictured at the 1989 Golden Globes
The news now puts Doris at the same age as her good friend Betty White, with Charley joking: "Now we know that they are actually just a couple months apart, and turns out it's an even biggest exciting landmark than we thought."
On previous birthdays, the Pillow Talk star has said she does not care about her age, and would rather use the occasion to highlight her favourite cause: animal welfare. In 1978, Doris founded the not-for-profit Doris Day Animal Foundation to provide grants to projects that rescue, care for and protect animals. This year, she has asked younger people to get involved in a social media campaign that asks people to post a photo or video with their pet with the hashtag #DorisBirthdayWish and the tag @ddaf_org.