Joan Collins, 93, Says She Avoids ‘Tweakments’ and Focuses on Healthy Living

The ‘Dynasty’ icon talks about aging, reinvention and bringing her passion project to the screen

Donna Freydkin,

AARP

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Published June 05, 2026

joan collins posing in a golden gown during a red carpet event

Joan Collins attends Variety’s inaugural Power of Women London event on June 3, 2026, where she received the Power of Women Icon of the Year award and spoke about reinvention.

Kate Green/Getty Images

Key takeaways

Joan Collins received Variety’s Power of Women Icon of the Year award in London.
At 93, Collins says her lifestyle is simple: no junk food, eight hours of sleep and time spent with loved ones.
Collins is taking on a late-life role as Wallis Simpson in My Duchess.

Dame Joan Collins had reinvention on her mind in London.

The actor, 93, made a surprise appearance at Variety’s inaugural Power of Women London event on June 3, where she received the Power of Women Icon of the Year award and looked back on a career that has evolved for more than seven decades.

“I discovered that to survive in this business and to thrive, you have to show which women are needed to reinvent themselves,” Collins said at the event, according to Variety. “We have to reinvent ourselves time and time again.”

Collins’ career explains why the reinvention line landed. She began acting as a teenager in London, moved into British films and Hollywood roles in the 1950s and became internationally famous in the 1980s as Alexis Carrington on Dynasty.

As the scheming ex-wife of Blake Carrington, Alexis gave the prime-time soap its sharpest edge: boardroom warfare, romantic sabotage, shoulder-padded confrontations and a rivalry with Krystle Carrington that helped define the show’s pop-culture footprint. The series, which ran from 1981 to 1989, earned her one Emmy nomination, in 1984. In 1991, she appeared in Dynasty: The Reunion. Alexis remains the screen character most closely associated with Collins.

Collins talks about aging in practical terms. She said her priorities are her “life, children, husband and friends” when discussing her health with The Telegraph.

joan collins in a scene from an episode of dynasty

Joan Collins appears in a 1983 episode of “Dynasty.” Collins’ role as Alexis Carrington made her one of the defining TV stars of the 1980s and remains the screen part most closely associated with her.

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Her approach aligns with some of AARP’s own guidance on healthy aging, which emphasizes simple daily habits over dramatic overhauls. AARP CEO Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan has urged adults 50-plus to weigh health span, the years lived in good health, alongside lifespan, and to make room for movement, new goals and social connection.

Collins put it more plainly when speaking to The Telegraph: “I just believe in healthy living. I don’t eat junk, I get eight hours of sleep, I exercise. It’s very simple.”

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In the same interview, she said she does “basic Pilates-type exercise” with a trainer a few times a week and admitted, “I hate walking — it bores me.”

She is just as direct about cosmetic procedures. “I do not believe in what they call tweakments,” she said. “I’ve never had them, which is why I look more or less the same as I have done for years.”

Collins’ latest reinvention brings her to My Duchess, an upcoming film in which she plays Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. Collins said she began thinking about the role decades ago when she heard that “there are no roles for women over a certain age” and decided she would have to find her own subject.

“This was my passion project, and it came to fruition. My other passion project, which never did, was Cleopatra. And then my friend Elizabeth Taylor got it,” she told British Vogue in May.

Live well longer

For more on staying healthy after 50, visit AARP’s Healthy Living guide for advice on fitness, food, mindfulness and everyday habits. You’ll find practical guidance on everything from gentle exercise and healthy eating to happiness, skin care and wellness events.

My Duchess feels personal to Collins, she told The Hollywood Reporter in May. She felt a kinship with Simpson, another woman who drew tabloid attention. Her relationship with King Edward VIII led him to abdicate the throne in 1936, though the movie focuses on Simpson’s far different final years.

“This film is a bit of me getting back [at the press], because I had a lot of problems in my time,” she said. “They always saw me as the bad girl because of the roles I played. When I was in Dynasty, the press would say, ‘She’s just like that,’ and I wasn’t!”

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The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

Donna Freydkin has spent 10-plus years interviewing celebrities for major publications, and has written for a variety of outlets such as USA Today, Allure, Yahoo! and CNN covering topics such as films, family and favorite meals.