GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS
When it comes to having a passionate sex life in middle age, Amanda Holden has the right idea
In the spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, wrote poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson back in 1835. Yeah, whatevs. Meanwhile, according to saucepot Amanda Holden, an ‘old’ woman’s fancy turns to rampant, red-hot sex.
I mean, do pass the smelling salts. Just in case you’ve spent the season of daffodils and gambolling lambs hiding under a heavy blanket (well, it has been nippy) you may have missed the fact that TV and radio presenter Amanda, 50, has been working off her Easter eggs with some, um, horizontal exercise – and telling us all about it every week.
Now, you can either think brazen hussy or go emerald with envy. Me? I’m channeling my inner green-eyed monster. I’m loving the fact that Ms Holden is not only doing it (literally) for women over 50 having a passionate sex life, she’s doing it for marriage too.
For way too long the common belief is that older people, especially menopausal women, just don’t do ‘it’. Perish the thought that any of us
‘WE OFTEN FORGET ABOUT INTIMACY’
actually enjoy it like young folk do. Amanda’s confession that she still enjoys ‘primal sex’ with her husband of 12 years, Chris Hughes, was not only colourful, it was inspirational. What she went on to explain was that as a couple – they have two daughters – she and Chris are still playful.
He dared her to bounce naked on their girls’ garden trampoline. She did. (Best not try this unless you have a huge, non-overlooked space.) And she also admitted that she often wanders around the house starkers, including once while cooking the Sunday roast.
Again, a note of caution on pans boiling on stoves and unfettered boobs…
Neither of these things are ‘sexy’ in the Fifty Shades of Grey stockings and nipple tassels way, but they are fun. And the one thing that ensures that any marriage, let alone marital sex, lasts
is the ability to have a damn good giggle together.
OK so Amanda has an amazing body, and if you’re a bit saggy and baggy, bouncing around nude may be slightly more intimidating. But the point of loving and being loved is that perfection isn’t important.
Being confident in your own skin is just about the sexiest thing any of us can ever do. It’s not easy, but it is possible.
Amanda’s other half is always ‘up for it’ which is great, and there’s usually one partner more keen than the other. This is where generosity as well as humour comes into it. We take time out to deal with everything else in life, from work to the supermarket, but often forget about intimacy.
So with the sap rising, the sun shining (occasionally) and spring well and truly sprung, let’s celebrate menopausal minxes in all their glory.
Now, just got to figure out how to fit a trampoline on a rather small balcony…