‘My daughter is horrified by me!'

On the cusp of turning 50, Wentworth newcomer Jane Hall talks to Susan Horsburgh about letting go of her only child, staying (fiery) friends with her famous ex and dipping her toes into the dating pool again.

- Susan Horsburgh

It’s customary these days for celebrities to tout the joys of ageing – to claim that a newfound comfort in one’s skin more than compensates for creeping decrepitude – but Jane Hall isn’t having it. Try posing next to your nubile 17-year-old daughter, she jokes, and you’ll feel every one of your 49 years.

“You’ve never felt worse!” she says. “I just keep hiding my old elbows and trying to keep my chins up. I can’t believe I’m nearly 50. I mean, spewing! How did that happen? It’s awful!”

No wonder she blitzed it for years on breakfast radio. Funny, candid and self-deprecating, Jane is a great company and, with 35 years under her showbiz belt, the consummate professional. On an idyllic autumn day in the gardens of Melbourne’s historic Como House, the actress slips into a model mode for the camera, smiling into the middle distance and laughing on cue, while her teenage daughter, it seems, would like to be airlifted pretty much anywhere else. As Jane kisses and cuddles her, Lucia manages to smile, but looks like the cartoon cat trying to escape the clutches of Pepe Le Pew.

“She’s been as sick as a dog for a week, but then there’s also the excruciating embarrassment of having to pose for photos with your mother,” explains Jane. “She was a darling to do this.” Jane has had to cajole Lucia into doing the shoot, and finally nudged her across the line with the promise of wearing some cool dresses. “She’s very into fashion,” says Jane. “She’s a girly girl.”