MIRRORS OF MUM
One half of the picture is an A-list star and the other is their doppelganger daughter — so can you tell who’s who?
FLOwINg raven hair. Check. Lithe, olive-toned skin. Check. Rosebud mouth. Check. If Catherine Zeta-Jones ever wants a flashback to her younger days, she need look no farther than her 17-year-old daughter Carys.
Pictured by her mum wearing a cream slip dress in the garden of the family home last week, aspiring actress Carys was the doppelganger of Catherine when she was a starlet in the TV series The Darling Buds Of May 30 years ago. But then perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised — because in Hollywood, it’s no longer the case that as a daughter’s looks blossom, her mother’s have to fade.
Catherine, 50, is from a generation of women who have fought to make sure they never look a day over 35. And with today’s young girls looking so grown up, it’s no wonder they start to meet their daughters in the middle.
The result is an eerie club of celebrity mums who look less like their child’s parent — and more like their sister.
And there are lucrative trade-offs in both directions — the up-and-coming daughter gets a leg up into the spotlight, while her mum gets to bask in the reflected glory of her fabulous gene pool.
It’s also wonderfully nostalgic to see supermodel Cindy Crawford’s 18-year-old daughter Kaia step into her shoes on the catwalk without missing a stride. But while she is clearly proud of her stunning girl, even Cindy, now 54, the most celebrated supermodel of her time, finds it hard.
SHe says: ‘I wish I could say it was easy for me to be getting old. I always tease my daughter and say: “You have my old hair — I want it back. Or you have my old legs. I want them back.”’
As a mother, I look at these mirror image pictures with fascination because people often tell me my 18-year-old, Lily, is my double.
I don’t want to compete with Lily’s looks — at 50, I know that all the money in the world cannot restore the honeyed glow and firm flesh of youth. But while I don’t envy Lily’s beauty, I do miss its easiness. These days, people my age are increasingly expected to backpedal furiously away from the precipice of middle age, with never-ending rounds of gym sessions and ‘tweakments’. Frankly, it’s exhausting.
For Lily, those lithe limbs and that smooth complexion are still effortless.
Psychotherapist Phillip Hodson says having a beautiful mini-me can be a bittersweet blessing, bringing up complex feelings for a mother. ‘You are looking into a time traveller’s mirror because you are not that age any more and seeing something you no longer have.’
For women in the spotlight that can be even harder.
‘If you are in the vanity industry to start with, then it can be particularly galling, as the comparison between you and your daughter is all on public display,’ adds Phillip.
But let’s not also forget that these superficial similarities are masking the fact these mums and daughters are females at very different times of their lives.
To give them their due, the women you see here — Cindy, Catherine, Amanda Holden, Christie Brinkley and Julianne Moore — have fought long and hard to be at the top of their professions. The youth and beauty of their gorgeous daughters is lovely to see, but they are not truly accomplishments.
Mothers of beautiful daughters know their youngsters were lucky when the pack of DNA cards was shuffled.
But it is still up to us, as parents, to instil drive and self-worth so our girls can make something of themselves beyond that.