Deborah Hutton on her shock new body at 64: “I never had hips before!”
She's finding contentment and building a new life with her partner
Packing up her rental home on the NSW South Coast to move to another rented unit for just six months wasn’t part of Deborah Hutton’s plans. But the shortened lease is a minor inconvenience on the way to her dream home.
“If anything, it’s a nice opportunity to declutter, simplify a bit,” she tells Woman’s Day, before giving us the rundown on her current “passion project”, a sprawling oceanfront build in Wombarra.
Deborah, 64, has taken on the roles of project manager and interior design, and when it’s finished – “We’ll be in by Christmas, so we’re on the countdown!” – it will be the “forever” home for her and her partner, Andrew Marsh.
“It’s a much bigger undertaking than I had anticipated, it’s not exactly a two-bedroom cottage!” she admits. “But I just love seeing the pieces coming together, and it’s a deeply personal [project].
“And we’re not going anywhere, we love it here. This is definitely the forever house.”
CALMING AND HELPING
Nearing her mid-60s, Deborah has found herself in a contented place personally, professionally and spiritually, an inspiring example of life getting more enriching with time. Her wellness routine includes the usual suspects – “I shoot a protein shake down most mornings, I love the walks down here, I do Pilates” – but meditation has been her secret weapon for many years.
“I’m a mad meditator,” says Deborah, whose partner Andrew is a meditation teacher. “I meditate twice a day, every day. My life can be so hectic, I need to calm the nervous system and it really helps keep me on track.”
Like many women, she’s found the changes to her body challenging at times, but with age has come the realisation that acceptance and gratitude should take the place of criticism.
“It’s an acceptance that when you get to a certain age, your body changes shape and that’s definitely happening,” Deborah says. “I’ve always had a pretty similar routine – I like eating healthy, I like moving my body. To be honest, I still struggle with that a little bit because I’m looking, going, where the hell is this shape coming from, I never had hips before!”
For someone who has spent much of her life in the public glare, it’s taken re-education to frame a more positive outlook towards getting older.
“You know what, I’m lucky to be here, this is what it is to get old and what a privilege that is,” she says, adding that her top advice to her younger self would be to “stop being so hard on yourself”.
“You’re working in the modelling industry, it’s highly critical, then television, again it’s very image driven,” she says. “I’d remind her that there’s no such thing as perfection, you can just do your best and accept that imperfection can also be a beautiful thing.”
HEALTH SCARE
Another venture the design enthusiast has unexpectedly found herself on later in life is hat design. It’s a move that came about after Deborah’s two experiences with skin cancer – health scares that served as a stark reminder of the importance of sun safety.
Eager to use her platform to spread awareness, Deborah realised there was a gap in the market for hats that were both practical and stylish, and so her collection with Canopy Bay (canopybay.com.au) was born.
“Who’d have thought I’d be designing sun-protective hats? But the skin cancer [experience] is one of the better things that’s happened because it’s given me a purpose,” she says of her Australian-made hats, some of which have crush-resistant Flexibraid technology, allowing them to be folded down for travelling. Even Queen Mary is a fan!
“It’s about being able to spread the word about the dangers of the sun and not getting your skin checked, but also the greater message that not every hat is doing the job you think.”
With so much on her plate of late, Deborah’s looking forward to “a really long sleep in” once they’re in their dream home. But there will always be something to tick off the bucket list!
She says, “I think retirement is such a done-for word. That’s kind of signing off from life, and I will always be invested in things that I’m passionate about.”
