Courteney's about face MAKING FRIENDS WITH AGEING

The TV stat admits trying to turn back time left her looking strange, but she has a new secret to keeping her youthful glow

Courteney Cox is the first to admit she’s faced a few mid-life challenges as the years have ticked on by.

“Going through a midlife crisis – I understand that,” muses mum-of-one Courteney, 57, with a smile. “Marriage… man, it’s a lot of work. And being a mum to a teenager – that’s not easy!”

Even the ageing process itself, she admits, has taken her rather by surprise.

“Oh, God,” she laughs at the thought that her 60th birthday is not so very far away. “There’s nothing wrong with being 60, I just can’t believe it. Time goes so fast!”

However, if there’s one thing Friends star Courteney knows, it’s how to reinvent herself and on March 15, Kiwis will be watching her light up the screen all over again in her new TV show Shining Vale.

In the horror comedy, which will be streaming on Neon, Courteney plays Pat Phelps, a menopausal erotic author in the midst of her own mid-life crisis: she’s been caught cheating on her husband and in an attempt to rebuild their lives, the family moves to a small town, where they promptly find themselves haunted.

“It was exciting to play a character that was so flawed and real,” says Courteney of her new alter ego. “She has a teenage daughter and that’s tough. I’m so happy I have a daughter than I can relate to and understand – but there are still a lot of emotions flying around!”