Australian actress Rachel Ward’s daughter has leapt to her defence after she was bombarded with nasty comments about her appearance.
The legendary star, best known for her roles in The Thorn Birds and Against All Odds, was at the height of her fame in the 1980s, but now lives a quiet life running a regenerative farm in Macksville, NSW.
Last month, the Golden Globe nominee, 68, took to Instagram to share a video update with fans about life on the farm.
However, the post was inundated with more than 2,000 comments, many cruelly critiquing the way Rachel looked.
“Omg!! What the hell happened to her. Wow!! She has aged really really bad,” one person commented.
“I read she’s 68. Looks way older! I’m 62 and can’t believe she’s only a few years older than me,” another person said.
“She looks ravaged,’ a third wrote.
Many people have also rushed to her defence, praising the England-born actress for ageing gracefully. Among those is Rachel’s youngest daughter, Matilda.
Matilda, 39, who is also an actress and helps out on the farm, shared a post of her own on Wednesday to hit back at the trolls.
“My mum put this video up of herself and these were some of the comments about her appearance,” Matilda wrote.
“If ageing naturally at 68 is so shocking then prepare to be SHOCKED.”
Matilda then added some clips of her doting mum on the farm. In them, Rachel can be seen cuddling her grandchildren, enjoying a cocktail in the sun, and spending time with her husband, actor Bryan Brown, whom she has been married to since 1983.
Matilda also revealed her mum’s brilliant response to the negative comments, confirming she is “completely unscathed” by the criticism.
“Thank you for the very kind comments and messages about my last reel. I’m unable to reply to all of them as there are thousands and thousands,” she wrote in a separate Instagram story.
“But I want you to know, my mum is completely unscathed by the comments. She has incredible self worth and her response when reading through them was to laugh and say ‘how funny, I thought I looked great!’ As it should have been.”
Matilda’s post about her mum clearly inspired many people, with more than 20,000 people taking to the comments to praise her.
“Still an exquisite beauty…and a great movie star,” actor Alec Baldwin wrote. He worked with Rachel in the 2006 film, Running With Scissors.
“Amen to REAL WOMEN. That’s me. What you see is what you get. I stand with Rachel. Nothing altered. Just me. Spreading the love,” actress Bridie Carter added.
“She looks like a woman who feels at peace in her own authenticity. What a beautiful wonderful place to be and feel. May we all have this,” one fan said.
“Looks like a woman living her best life, with intention, caring about things that matter like the environment, surrounded by her kids and grandbabies. Life goals,” echoed another.
As well as Matilda, Rachel and Bryan have two more children: Rosie, 42, and Joe, 34.
