Astonishing selfies posted this week by Karren Brady on social media revealed The Apprentice star’s glamorous new makeover – and it was so dramatic, the photos left some of her fans questioning if it was actually really her.
Baroness Brady, 56, is a grandmother whose career spans more than 30 years in the spotlight – she became Managing Director of Birmingham City when she was just 23 in 1993.
And yet, thanks to a physical transformation in recent months that now sees her with a tiny waist, glowing youthful skin and voluminous, flowing hair, she wouldn’t look out of place in a line-up of twentysomething Gen Z models.
The reality TV star, who’s current vice-chairman of West Ham, appears to have undergone a head-to-toe overhaul so dramatic that she’s succeeded in turned back the ageing clock.
Photos of her posing in the stands at St Andrew’s stadium in 1995, wearing a pussy-bow blouse in Birmingham blue, looked mature and corporate – a huge contrast to the more playful attire of her current wardrobe, including the pretty lace dress – cinched in with a Chanel belt – in her most recent photos to her 237,000 Instagram followers.
Brady isn’t the only famous face that is laughing in the face of a sixth decade, with a host of celebrities looking more youthful now than they did in their twenties, thanks to a raft of hi-tech anti-ageing treatments.
So glowing and youthful are certain famous faces that they appear to be living the plot of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the 2008 film starring Brad Pitt – also currently a West End stage hit – about a man who ages in reverse.
Brady has always been frank about her appreciation of aesthetic enhancements, having previously disclosed she’d had a £3,500 ‘invisible facelift, and this week gushing about a skin-tightening treatment, Exion, that, she says, has given her the confidence to wear short-sleeved dresses again.
Glamorous granny! Karren Brady, 56, and a grandmother of one, took to social media this week to reveal her latest youthful look
The former MD of Birmingham City as she looked when she ran the Midlands football club in her twenties in the early 90s
Fresh faced: Brady pictured when she was 25. Right, the mother-of-two, showcased her glamorous new look during the most recent season of The Apprentice
But which other famous faces appear to be drinking from the fountain of youth – and look younger now than they did 30 years ago?
LAUREN SANCHEZ
Lauren Sanchez, pictured with her husband, Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos, in Cannes in May, also appears to be drinking from the fountain of youth
Lauren pictured during her senior year at High School in Albuquerque in 1987 as an 18-year-old
Spot the teen! Sanchez pictured with the son she shares with her ex-husband, Patrick Whitesell. Right: Lauren as a 16-year-old in 1985
When it comes to global fame, Lauren Sanchez – billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ wife – was a late bloomer.
Wind back the clock thirty years and the now 55-year-old was a budding TV star, who faced countless job rejections, and cut a very different figure to the A-list astronaut image she now enjoys.
Always glamourous, the New Mexico-raised celebrity looks fresh-faced in photos taken in the 90s…but time has been kind to Sanchez and she looks just as youthful as she heads towards the big 60.
On her wedding day in Venice earlier this year, the bride looked radiant, donning a chic Dolce and Gabbana wedding gown and revealing a stunning diamond ring.
New York City plastic surgeon Dr Elie Levine told the Daily Mail earlier this year that the glamorous philanthropist has perhaps softened her natural look with enhancements.
‘I think with Sanchez, it’s not a question so much of what she’s had done but of what she’s had undone,’ said Dr Levine.
‘Her midface and cheek area is still pronounced, but not as much as it was before, and the bottom of her face is not as, for want of a better word, distorted as it was before.
‘She has definitely done something: either dissolved fillers or simply not added more fillers.’
Sanchez has never confirmed she’s had plastic surgery or fillers, though it has been alleged that she’s had a facelift, breast augmentation, rhinoplasty, fillers in her cheeks and lips and Botox.
The Daily Mail has previously reached out to her team for comment.
CAROL VORDERMAN
Carol was first known to many as the letters and numbers guru on Channel 4’s Countdown in the eighties – she started the job when she was in her early twenties
In her seventh decade, Carol Vorderman has admitted to having botox to preserve her glowing skin
For telly fans who grew up watching Carol Vorderman outsmart everyone as Countdown’s maths whizz, how the presenter looks now isn’t what many tuning in the 80s might have expected.
Carol, 64, has got ever more glamorous with each decade, apparently finding the elixir of youth in her forties and still enjoying it twenty years on.
The politically-minded brainbox, who’s just released a book outlining her own manifesto for change, regularly shows off her enviable figure on Instagram via a carousel of figure-hugging outfits.
The star has long been a supporter of clean eating and following a detox diet, and has even published books on the subject.
Her skin – positively plumped and dewy – and the sensible fringe the star sported during her Countdown days have been replaced by flowing highlighted hair.
The more sensible twentysomething Carol sported boxy sensible trouser suits and plain dresses for her early appearances on the Channel 4 show.
For many fans, Carol’s major style transformation began in the late 1990s following the arrival of her two children, when she ditched her dowdy looks for more form-fitting dresses.
Formula for anti-ageing: in her sixties, Carol has been a fan of sharing sizzling Instagram posts showing off her hourglass figure. Right: the star pictured during her Countdown days in the 90s
The star began her ageing backwards journey in her forties – and won Rear Of The Year after turning 50
In 2000, the star split from her second husband, management consultant Patrick King after 10 years of marriage.
At the time the star credited her weight loss with following a detox diet, and even released a VHS and book documenting the 28-day plan.
By 2011, Carol had been crowned Rear Of The Year – and was a bonafide sex symbol.
While remaining coy about any enhancements, Vorderman said last year that she has a ‘no f***s given’ approach to ageing.
She said: ‘Everyone on telly has Botox. I look the way I do because it makes me happy. But you get to a point in life where it’s no f***s given. I love what David Bowie said about ageing: “You become the person you always should have been.”
‘My sixties is the age I always should have been. The abuse I get is off the scale but I don’t give a monkey’s. Actually it spurs me on.’
She also told how she has actually never had a boob job but that she went up three cup sizes when she went through menopause.
AMANDA HOLDEN
The Britain’s Got Talent star is known for her flawlessly toned physique, age-defying complexion and flesh-baring outfits, with the 54-year-old ageing like a fine wine.
Earlier this year, in an interview with Mail+, the star revealed how her beauty regime includes everything from £9.99 eyelashes to a blow-dry service alongside L’Oreal shampoo, skin and facial treatments and state-of-the-art home gym equipment.
‘Never give up. Do what you want as long as it’s in moderation’, she said of how she maintains her immaculate looks – saying she’s up for any treatment as long as it’s ‘not invasive’.
Despite having just rung in her 54th birthday, Amanda seems to have found the secret to eternal youth and she’s not afraid to flaunt it (Pictured in May this year on the Britain’s Got Talent set)
Amanda Holden pictured in 1998 when she was just 27; the 54-year-old star looks younger than ever thanks to a strict diet and skincare regime
The Britain’s Got Talent star with former husband Les Dennis at the premier of Girls Night in the late 90s. Right: Pictured in 1998 at the National Television Awards
Bikini babe: The star regularly shares swimwear photos with her fans on social media
The star says her glowing skin ‘is mainly down to good genetics’ but loves a facial therapy sculpting massage and keeps loose, crepey skin at bay with AgeJet Plasma Skin Therapy treatment.
Alongside a raft of other treatments, the celebrity is a known fan of LED masks, saying: ‘I adore my Maysama Prana LED Light Therapy mask, which I use three to five times a week for six minutes.’
Mother-of-two Holden first shot to temporary fame on Cilla Black’s Blind Date in the early 90s.
The then 20-year-old wasn’t picked on the dating show but her appearance put her in the spotlight and four years later she was dating future husband Les Dennis.
JENNIFER LOPEZ
Jenny from the Block is good at the ageing game; the 56-year-old has barely aged since her 20s
J-Lo pictured in 1997 as a 28-year-old; J-Lo has previously put her youthful looks down to a strict regime of exercise and sleep
On the left: J-Lo in 1995 at the Desperado premiere. Right: the singer pictured 30 years later in New York in May 2025
Popstar and actress Jennifer Lopez has been in the public eye since the 1990s, scoring her first TV acting job in 1994 at the age of 24.
With her wavy hair and sophisticated style, she was undoubtedly striking then – but that was nothing compared to now.
Today, with more than 30 years in showbusiness behind her, the US performer appears to have defied the ageing process.
The mother-of-two, who starred in the award-winning film Hustlers, has admitted that maintaining a youthful appearance requires serious effort.
She has previously identified a rigorous diet, an ‘intense’ workout routine and a fiercely strict sleep schedule as absolutely key.
Jennifer even once suggested that she diets constantly, having revealed that she eats roughly 1,400 calories a day – 600 calories less than women are generally advised to consume – which sometimes leaves her ‘starving’ between meals.
But it’s not only the star’s lithe body that makes it seem that she’s ageing backwards. Her super-glam make-up and ever-changing hairstyles, not to mention her expansive designer wardrobe, mean that at 56 she looks better than she did in her 20s.
In a recent, sultry campaign for Italian intimates and loungewear brand Intimissimi, Bronx-born Jennifer, who has always denied she’s had plastic surgery, showed off her youthful looks.
‘Intimissimi’s New Silky Intimates is a perfect collection – it’s classic in style and the fabrics are luxe,’ she said of the campaign.
‘It’s so important to feel comfortable and empowered in the pieces that are closest to your skin, and this collection does just that… And as always, it’s absolutely gorgeous.’
GILLIAN ANDERSON
Blonde bombshell: Gillian Anderson is 57 but could pass for a woman decades younger
The star as she looked at the height of her The X Files fame in 1996 – when she was 28
Gillian Anderson shot to fame in her 20s as Dana Scully in the X-Files but, now 57, the American actress has never looked better.
The mother-of-three, who says she’s never had plastic surgery, was named global ambassador for L’Oréal Paris, the world’s largest beauty brand, earlier this year.
Gillian, who played journalist Emily Maitlis in last year’s Scoop, the dramatisation of Maitlis’ 2019 car-crash interview with Prince Andrew, has been praised as an excellent example of ‘ageing well’ by London-based plastic surgeon Mr Mark Solomos.
Speaking to the Daily Mail last summer, Mr Solomos said: ‘Gillian is the perfect example of “How to age well”.
‘Her features are soft and pretty but again she’s a fair skinned beauty who has done well to keep out of the sun, wear a good SPF and work hard to look after her skin.
The Hollywood star has aged naturally, saying she appreciates the European approach that beauty isn’t something that withers with age (Pictured in 1995, when Anderson was 27)
‘Her body shape has barely changed, and this would be the result of again following a good diet and working out with a trainer most days.’
While Gillian, who has gained a new fanbase thanks to her role in Sex Education, does use high-end lotions on her skin, she has said she feels less of urgency to try to look younger thanks to the time she’s spent in Europe, where she’s starred in numerous theatre productions.
‘I think in Europe, in general, there’s a sense that women who age naturally can be beautiful,’ she said previously.
‘Whereas I’m not so sure that’s the perception in America, specifically in L.A. I think that it’s seen as a flaw, somehow—like wrinkles are a flaw.’
And, in last year’s L’Oréal campaign she reiterated her refreshing view on ageing when she said: ‘They say your best years are behind you. I’m just getting started.
‘I wish that in those early years I would not have wasted so much time on my doubts. Age has never been a limit, it’s an advantage. My advice for facing doubt is to say f*** you. I leap before I give myself a chance to be afraid.
