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Inside HELLO!’s Second Act Power List 2025 party
Published on November 11, 2025 · Posted in MY NEWS
Tagged with AGING, AWARDS, CELEBRITY FRIENDS, MENOPAUSE
Power, heels and a riot of brilliant women
Being included in HELLO! Magazine’s Second Act Power List is a joy; smart women with sharp wits – refusing to be exiled to social siberia or to sit at home knitting their own bus passes. The list celebrates women thriving in midlife and inspiring the next generation, and HELLO! marked the occasion with a party at Sartoria in Kensington. The event brought together leading names from television, fashion, sport and philanthropy to lift one another up and celebrate living their best lives.
Imagine a room full of brilliant women who refuse to go quietly into beige cardigans, all clutching cocktails with names like Blackberry Jo-jito. It was less polite soirée and more joyous uprising in sequins.
I found myself in fabulous company: Twiggy, Davina McCall, Dame Kelly Holmes, Ruby Hammer, Jo Wood, and a constellation of others proving that this stage of life is not a winding down. It is a glorious second act.
As I said on the night, for women, life really is in two acts. The trick is surviving the interval. But post-menopause is the best time of a woman’s life. At HELLO!’s Second Act Power List party, we could have powered the whole of London on joy, vibrancy, laughter, sisterly solidarity… oh yes, and hot flushes.
I gave a short speech and rounded off by urging everyone to “hit the dancefloor with panache, aplomb and give good hedonism.” And they did. Within minutes, the floor was a blur of laughter, sparkle, and sheer female energy.
For me, occasions like this matter. Women are too often described as past their prime, as if we come with a use-by date. Yet the truth is, the older we get, the more we know exactly who we are and what we want. Experience is the new superpower, and I plan to keep using mine with abandon.
And before the night was out, I handed every gal pal a copy of The Revenge Club – my latest novel, and the perfect guide for exacting vengeance on any bloke who stands in your way.
I’m absolutely delighted to be part of HELLO!’s Second Act Power List sisterhood. Growing older is not about slowing down. It is about turning the volume up.
You can read the article in HELLO! in full here.
All images reproduced with kind permission of HELLO! Magazine, who, by the way, definitely know how to throw a party.
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Sexist men are so stupid it makes you want to take the ‘men’ out of Mensa.
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I don’t fake orgasms. I’m faking being six foot one and seven stone.
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