Jennifer Love Hewitt Calls Out Ageism in Hollywood: ‘It’s Hurtful’

In an interview with Fox News Digital, the 45-year-old actress opened up about being criticized over her changing appearance, saying that some fans have a “hard time accepting” that she doesn’t look the same as she did when she was a teenager or in her 20s.

“Age is age. I think women really come into this… acceptance of themselves and comfortability in their 40s that is beautiful,” Hewitt said.

The Ghost Whisperer star — who shares daughter Autumn, 11, and sons Atticus, 9, and Aidan, 3, with husband Brian Hallisay — shared that while she’s enjoying being in her mid-40s, it’s been difficult seeing how fans have reacted to aging.

“The times that it’s hard for me though… Taylor Swift actually said it in one of her documentaries. She was like, ‘I feel like fans pick, this you, this age, that they love that they think represents you, and you’re never supposed to grow beyond that,'” she said.

“For me… it was like me and my 20s… people seem to have a really hard time accepting that… I don’t look that way anymore,” Hewitt continued.

“It’s hard because I think as humans, we want to evolve… we want to have lines on our faces, and you know, our boobs be lower from breast-feeding our children, or you know, our butt’s bigger,” she added with a laugh.

I Know What You Did Last Summer actress said she feels that fans have “reject[ed]” her appearance, and have voiced that to her on social media.

“Whatever it is, you just want to have the freedom to be whoever you are at that age,” she told Fox News Digital. “And it’s hurtful sometimes when people reject you as you are verbally on Instagram or the internet because they’re having a hard time adjusting to it.”

Ultimately, Hewitt noted that she takes issue with the criticism because she doesn’t want her children to see the negative comments.

“I have a daughter, I’m sensitive to it because I don’t want my kids to read those things and feel that way… or worry about me being hurt by it… it’s hard to do that sometimes,” she said.

Hewitt has previously opened up about her thoughts on aging as a woman in Hollywood.

In September 2023, critics accused the Can’t Hardly Wait star of being “unrecognizable” after she showed off a hair transformation on Instagram. At the time, some people online speculated she had more than just her hair done.

While speaking on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast in December 2023, Hewitt addressed the comment, saying that she didn’t really think much beyond the moment when she opted to use a filter on the picture because she had “not a stitch of makeup on.”

“A bunch of people were like, ‘Jennifer Love Hewitt is unrecognizable,'” Hewitt said. “‘She’s unrecognizable, so she’s gone to filters because she doesn’t want us to know how bad she actually looks now in her 40s.'”