Sherri Shepherd explains why 'sex after 50 is amazing': 'You know what you want'
Unapologetically is a Yahoo Life series in which women and men from all walks of life get the chance to share how they live their best life — out loud and in living color, without fear or regret — looking back at the past with a smile and embracing the future with excited anticipation.
At 55, Sherri Shepherd is in the midst of her next act. She just moved to New York to launch Sherri, her new talk show. And she recently teamed up with Hertz — which she used for her cross-country move from Los Angeles — on its Let’s Go! campaign, more proof that this star isn’t afraid to keep moving forward in life. For Shepherd, aging is a good thing — because it means she’s “getting more wisdom” and being more selective about the path she wants to take.
“I'm at the point where I don't mind saying no,” she explains. “Older to me is not a negative. Older is a positive. When, when Captain Sully landed that plane in the Hudson River, he wasn't 30 — he was older. There's a lot of stuff that you get when you're older and I've learned to forgive more. I've learned to not let people bother me. So older is really a plus and don't let anybody tell you it's not.”
For Shepherd, loving herself isn’t conditional. She says her weight has fluctuated over the years, but that hasn’t changed how she feels about her body. When it comes to making changes, the Trial & Error alum focuses less on how she looks and more on her health.
“I always like my body. I like my body when it had rolls on it. I like my body when my stomach is tight,” she stresses. “You know when you're not at your best weight, when you're not at your best health. So I've never not loved my body, but I knew when I wasn't operating at optimal efficiency.”
The star, who was married twice and is now happily dating around, says she feels the same way about her body in sexier moments, too.
“I got lingerie in a size XX, XL, and I felt sexy. I have lingerie in a size medium, and I feel sexy,” she says. “Sexy is not the way your body looks sexy is how you feel inside.”
And it's only getting better with age.
“Sex after 50 is amazing," she teases. "You know why? Because you take your time. There's no Energizer bunnies going on after 50. After 50, you know what you want and you're not afraid to say it.”
That doesn’t mean that Shepherd hasn’t had a moment where she’s wanted to change her body. She says she is “very serious” about having a breast reduction, joking, “It only irritates women — my boobs being so big when women feel like it's out of proportion. Men have no problem with it. Any man that I say to I'm gonna have a reduction in my breast. They're like, ‘Oh, damn, what? No!’”
One thing that the mom decided against was adjusting the size of her backside.
“I've never liked my booty,” she notes. “I always wanted a big bubble butt and I wanted big hips. Well, after doing the research, I realized my frame is not gonna handle a bubble butt, or big hips. I don't wanna look like an ant driving everything around.”
Of what she’s learned in life, the talk show host says she’s proud of her ability to move forward.
“I don’t get bogged down by a lot of past issues,” she says. “I just keep moving forward. When you stay in that place of unforgiveness, of the past, that’s what makes you look older. That’s what makes you feel bad. That’s what makes you sick. So why be in that place when you can forgive and move on?”
Of what she wants women her age to know, she says it’s simple: “It’s not over. It’s just the beginning.”
Sherri premieres Sept 12 in national syndication.
—Video produced by Stacy Jackman
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