Fortysomething - Jacqui Leigh

Fortysomething

From men to mid life crises, from Botox to Brazilians, from infertility to infidelity, every week Jacqui Leigh gives her personal take on being a fortysomething woman

Featured blog post

Old school photos with the faces scratched out

Should I go to my dreaded school reunion?

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Recent blog posts

Apr 04

Apparently I’m the Gwyneth Paltrow of the office

My colleague offers me a chocolate mini egg and then snatches it back before I can respond. ‘Oops sorry, your body is your temple isn’t it?’ My eyes narrow. It’s always interesting to know how other people see you. Apparently I’m the Gwyneth Paltrow of the office....

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Mar 28

In a happy relationship? Sorry, no one cares!

I’m having toast and flicking through The Times on my iPad when I see a question to agony aunt Marie O’Riordan. 'I am dating again after my 11-year marriage broke down and friends keep asking me how my new love life is going, as if it is public property...’ I can...

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Mar 20

Getting older is no longer theoretical, it's gonna happen

I’m on the escalator in M&S when I glance round and see Aunty, 89, still standing at the top. She looks down at the escalator and starts to sway. Oh boy. I run down, around and back up the other escalator to rescue her. Not that long ago I used to leave her to walk from Waitrose to M&...

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Mar 14

Stuck in a relationship you can’t afford to leave?

In the process of going through all my old blog posts, trying to see where I might have been indiscreet, I took a trip down Memory Lane and realised how my life had changed since I gave up being a respectable married woman of this parish and instead became a wanton hussy, dedicated to the joys of...

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Mar 08

Online anonymity lesson learnt... the hard way

It’s me, I’m back. In case you hadn’t even noticed I’d gone, I took a break after things in real life got a bit sticky. My blog anonymity was blown by somebody – let’s call her 'Person A' since I don’t know who she is – who recognised me from...

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Feb 06

Farewell, but not goodbye...

I look up penance on Google. 'An act of self-mortification or devotion performed voluntarily to show sorrow for a sin.' To be honest, I’m not sure dragging a giant crucifix around suburban London is really me. I’d end up causing an obstruction. Self-flagellation sounds a bit...

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Feb 01

It's actually happened, Dan's moved in...

After two-and-a-half-years of seeing each other, Dan is finally, finally – sort of – living with us. After a lot more work than he anticipated, he has finished doing up the house where he lived with his mum and rented it out to friends, the money helping to pay for her care in Sweden...

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Jan 23

Losing stuff is a God given talent

Since my gym bag broke, I’ve been lugging my gym kit around in Monica’s rejected pink shoe bag. Only I haven’t seen the pink shoe bag for about 24 hours, it’s not in the house, nor in the mound of crap in back of my car and I’m starting to wonder if I left it in the...

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Jan 18

How to be a gym bunny

It’s the same every year. In the first two weeks of January the gym car park is so crowded the cars are practically stacked on top of each other. Inside the gym it’s like a ship’s engine room. The treadmills and cross trainers going at full pelt, weights clanging to the floor,...

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Jan 10

There's self respect... and then there's the onesie

My over-riding memory of this Christmas? Sitting in my friend’s kitchen, chatting to her husband while he made curry from their Christmas turkey. As I sit there, I start to feel a bit giddy overpowered perhaps by the clouds of steam and the smell of garam masala. Or maybe it’s just the...

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