Kristin Davis says it is ‘extremely stressful’ to grow older in the public eye

‘If I was from a regular life, I would feel fine... But no, I’m on television, where every bit of my physical being is analysed,’ says the And Just Like That star

Kristin Davis has opened up about how it feels to age while appearing in the public eye.

Davis, 56, has played Sex and The City’s (SATC) Charlotte York for more than 20 years, and returned for the much-anticipated HBO Max reboot, And Just Like That.

In an interview with NewBeauty, she spoke about how “stressful” it was to be compared to her “much, much, much younger self”. Davis was 32 when she starred in the very first episode of SATC in 1998.

“If I was from a regular life, I would feel fine; I would feel great! I’m healthy, I’m strong, I’ve got this three-year-old son and I carry him around and it’s all good,” she said.

“But no, I’m on television, where every bit of my physical being is analysed.

“That part was always very stressful and difficult for me, because, as much as I can look back on my life and think: ‘Oh, I looked great then’, you never think at the time. I guess no one does,” she added.

Davis, along with her co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays Carrie Bradshaw, and Cynthia Nixon, who plays Miranda Hobbes, have been subjected to ageist comments ever since the reboot was announced.

Parker slammed the comments as “misogynist” in nature and that they would “never happen about a man”.

She said in an interview with Voguein November: “‘Grey hair, grey hair, grey hair. Does she have grey hair?’ I’m sitting with Andy Cohen and he has a full head of grey hair and he’s exquisite. Why is it okay for him?

“It’s almost as if people don’t want us to be perfectly okay with where we are, as if they almost enjoy us being pained by who we are today, whether we choose to age naturally and not look perfect, or whether you do something if that makes you feel better.

“I know what I look like. I have no choice. What am I going to do about it? Stop ageing? Disappear?”

Davis echoed her co-star and said it was “unavoidable in our culture” to focus on how people – particularly women – look as they age.

“It’s a whole, bigger cultural conversation we need to have, but right now, it’s hard,” she added.

Davis also revealed that paparazzi constantly photograph the actors while they are on set to try and catch “bad pictures” of them.

“There’s going to be bad pictures, and they’re going to talk about them, and they’re going to discuss your hair, your face, your this and your that, and that’s just how it is I guess, at least in this industry,” she told NewBeauty.

“We try to put each other up and say we’re not going to look at it and we try our best not to look at it, but it’s hard not to end up looking at it.

“I think you’re confronted with the fact that you can’t win… you can only win in terms of how you feel with your own self. You can’t please everybody.”