Cybill Shepherd speaks candidly about aging

Because she couldn't stop the aging process, Cybill says she felt the need to act outrageously to stay relevant. "I felt if I'd come on a show I had to do something shocking and get attention. Somehow I'm a starved child that never got enough attention," she says. "It never makes up for your real value that you find at the core of your being."

Still, Cybill says the day she realized she no longer turned heads wasn't easy. "I remember distinctly the time walking across the street once with my two daughters, Ariel and Clementine, and noticing that the men were looking at them and not me," she says. "It was disturbing."

Throughout her 30s, Cybill thought her career would survive until she hit 40. "I believed that Marilyn Monroe had died when she was 40, and she looked so beautiful," she says. "It turns out she died when she was 36, so I'd already lived these four years where I was not supposed to still be looking okay."

When 40 finally arrived, Cybill says she fled the country but couldn't escape her age. Turning 50 was even worse, she says. "Fifty was really very traumatic, especially the early 50s," she says. "I stopped looking at myself in the mirror because I could see that I was aging."

Turning 60, however, was a turning point. "You decide what's really important in your life," she says.

Now that she's older, Cybill says her definition of real beauty has changed. "If we don't work to develop that depth and [have] more fun too—and really laughing and crying as much as possible—learning to love ourselves as we age is one of the most challenging things we can do," she says. "Look at everything and find something you can love about your body."

 Oprah.com