Vanessa Williams Reveals How She Really Feels About Aging

Vanessa Williams turned 60 precisely two months ago today, and this birthday, she said, felt much different than those she celebrated in the past.

"Fifty was fine," she told Jennifer Hudson during her appearance on the May 17 episode of her daytime talk show. "I figured I've got half my life to laugh over."

But a decade later, that sentiment seems to have changed. "Sixty was like, 'OK, how many years do I have left?'" Williams shared.

"Is it 25?" the Ugly Betty alum said, guesstimating how many more years she'd live. "Is it 30?"

Anxiety about her mortality aside, during Wednesday's episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show, she also recognized that aging is "a privilege."

"There's a sense of ease. The older you get, the less you care about what everybody else has to say," she said. "You're living in your own glory. You accept yourself. You give yourself grace."

The former Desperate Housewives star recalled what it felt like growing up, navigating young adulthood, and suggested that people are the hardest on themselves when they're in their 20s and 30s.

"When I was Miss America at 20 years old, my life completely changed, but also gave me the biggest kick in the a** of my life, with life lessons," she explained. “You know, having hate mail, having death threats: ‘You’re not Black enough.’ ‘You’re too Black.’ That was the grueling part of my life," she confessed.

But now, decades and multiple starring roles later, self-doubt is not something she's had to battle. "[At 60], you don't beat yourself up the way we do when we're in our 20s and 30s, and I gotta do this, and I gotta be this and I gotta please people," Williams stated. "There is a sense of satisfaction and ease that you get the older you get, and I'm embracing that and loving it."

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