Gazing down at the youngest addition to her family, Liz Earle radiates with the joy that comes with becoming a grandmother for the first time. And as HELLO! joins the author and wellness expert at her tranquil home in the West Country, she tells us how her new family role – along with finding love with a "younger boyfriend" and self-care including a daily dip in her large freshwater pond – is helping her live life to the full.
"I feel better, stronger and happier than ever before," says Liz, who is joined by elder daughter Lily, 33, and her newborn son, as well as Liz's younger children Brella, 23, and Kit, 21, for our exclusive photoshoot. Welcoming her first grandchild is "quite a milestone", says Liz, who turned 60 last May and is also mum to Guy, 31, and her 14-year-old youngest son, whom she doesn't name because of his age.
© HELLO!"Lily is already an amazing mother; she exudes such calm," says Liz, adding that her new grandson – who was born at the beginning of April and whose name the family are keeping private – is a "very content" baby. "I've actually yet to hear him cry. He likes opening one eye and looking at you." She adds: "It's extraordinary that there are a lot more baby things around now, like breast pumps and apps, than when I first became a mum."
Watching her "baby" have her own child has been a major moment in Liz's life, and just one of the many reasons she is enjoying, as she puts it, a "better second half". And she is on a mission to help other women in midlife do the same; her new book, A Better Second Half, encourages women to thrive in later life, covering aspects of wellbeing from relationships to hormones and gut health.
Liz founded her internationally successful eponymous skincare empire in 1995 and was awarded an MBE for services to the beauty industry two years later, but after selling the business in 2010, she returned to her roots as an author and broadcaster, as well as engaging with her many social media followers.
© HELLO!"After 35 books, I feel this is The One," she says. "It's a culmination of years of research and I feel it's the book I've been waiting to write." In it, she shares a plethora of useful health hacks and everyday wellness tips, as well as taking readers inside her own sworn-by rituals.
As well as raising five children and coping with Lily's health issues, she has dealt with the challenge of starting afresh after her two-decade-long marriage to filmmaker Patrick Drummond, her second husband, ended in 2020.
But now, she is glowing as she tells us about finding happiness with a younger man, whose name she keeps private. "We're about to have our first anniversary, which seems very grown-up," she says.
"It's a lovely time of life to be in a relationship, using what I've learned in the past few decades to keep it special and protect the good stuff. We keep communication open, honest, straightforward. We have no plans to live together, but we see a lot of each other and it works. I know I'm with him because I want to see him, not because I need somebody next to me. There is real strength in that."
© HELLO!Liz also finds joy in her garden, which, as well as a vegetable patch and a little shepherd's hut, boasts a pond filled with fresh rainwater. "I dug a big pond for getting biodiversity into the garden. One day, I decided to put on my swimsuit and sit in it. Now I go down every morning and watch the sun coming up – I had to buy a crowbar to break the ice during winter."
Cold water therapy is just one of the concepts Liz writes about in her new book, alongside delving into the science behind living longer. "I'm genuinely aiming to live until 120," she says. "I feel fitter and stronger at 60 than I did at 50, so why can't that increase continue?"
A Better Second Half: Dial Back Your Age to Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life is out now, published by Yellow Kite, priced £22.
