Revealed: How Julie Andrews looks so good at 90 after overcoming a rough childhood with an alcoholic mother and abusive stepfather

With a glittering career spanning decades behind her, enviable vocals and her name in some of the world’s best-loved films, Dame Julie Andrews is a celebrity who seems to have it all. 

The Surrey-born actress, who turns 90 today, has only seen her success soar in recent years as the voice of Lady Whistledown in Netflix’s popular Bridgerton series – all while looking as youthful as ever. 

Despite now being grandmother to nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, in some ways not much has changed since her youthful roles as Mary Poppins (1964) and Maria in the Sound Of Music (1965). 

Famously, Andrews’ rise to stardom did not come without difficulty, having previously opened up about a tough childhood with her alcoholic mother and abusive stepfather. 

Over the years, Julie has revealed her secrets to maintaining her good looks, from her protein-packed diet to her workout routine – and even tips for hair and make-up. 

However, she’s said she’s ‘not a fanatic’ about fitness, instead crediting a consistent routine with helping her keep happy and healthy. 

In an interview with Business Insider in 2019, Julie revealed: ‘I also made an effort to maintain routines, whenever possible, and to do my part in that routine. 

‘For instance, my kids tease me about it now, but I tried to make a ‘good protein breakfast’ for them before school, and we had dinner together most nights. 

‘We also designated one night a week “family night” and went out to a favorite restaurant together.’

In a 1996 interview on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, she gave more details about her workout routines, which would typically include ’45 minutes of stretching and some aerobics and ballet barre’ before going on stage in the evening. 

This was then followed by ’45 minutes of singing’. 

Speaking to the Saturday Evening Post in 1996, she added: ‘I’m not a fanatic about it. I do as much as is necessary but only as much as is necessary, because it occupies a certain portion of my day. 

‘I do stretch and then my exercises. It’s part a little ballet, a little yoga, and a lot of stretching because my back is not the strongest part of my body, and I have to be very careful. 

‘Then, of course, I do a singing practice every day. Really, the whole day is about getting ready for the show.’ 

The Princess Diaries star has not shared many details about her diet and preferred foods, but previously said she likes to keep a high content of protein in what she eats. 

In one magazine interview in the 1970s, she shared that she has a ‘very high protein diet’ but clarified that she likes a lot of ‘variety’ in her food too. 

In 1992, she joined celebrities including Bob Hope and Gene Kelly in contributing recipes to The United Service Organisation’s Celebrity Cookbook. 

Andrews’ recipe was a healthy take on a carrot cake, replacing butter frosting with one made with tofu, for a healthier treat and protein-packed punch. 

The actress, who underwent surgery on her vocal chords in 1997 to remove non-cancerous nodules, has also spoken openly about the steps she takes to improve her mental health – which may also have contributed to her continued healthy glow.  

The songstress has at times turned to therapy, journalling and psychoanalysis throughout the years, for example telling Oprah Daily in 2019 ahead of releasing her memoir Home Work, that ‘writing in my diary has helped keep me sane’. 

Meanwhile, she told Business Insider that therapy ‘saved my life in multiple ways’, adding: ‘I think if I had any advice to share, it would be, ‘Don’t be afraid to seek help’

Andrews advocates living in the moment, trying not to get ‘too far ahead’ of herself, and focusing on gratitude with helping her, and said seeking out psychoanalysis was a ‘fundamental’ part of her growth. 

Her tips for make-up and hair too, are simple but effective. 

‘I wash it daily with the first shampoo that comes to hand. I give it a conditioner or a rinse only when I think it needs it, not as a matter of course, and I blow it dry,’ she told Beauty Plus magazine in 1973. 

‘I realise I am lucky I don’t have to fuss with it because I can think of nothing worse than having to walk around in curlers and I certainly don’t approve of curlers in bed.

‘When it comes to make-up, my message, both to myself and to every body else is – be yourself and let yourself be seen. Don’t slosh so much make-up on that you can’t see the real person. I use it very discreetly, lightly and sparingly.’

She said her favourite products were from Elizabeth Arden, saying she would only go for a heavier look if ‘absolutely’ necessary for a film or TV project.  

Andrews was born in 1935 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England. Her mother, Barbara Ward Wells, was married to teacher Ted Wells, but conceived Julie in an affair with a family friend – something Julie didn’t know until she was 14, when she met the man at a party. 

In addition to the tumult of having divorced parents in the 1940s, she has said that her new stepfather, Ted Andrews, was an alcoholic, and tried twice to climb into bed with her.

In her 2008 autobiography Home, she recalled putting a lock on her door to keep him out.

Her mother Barbara was also an alcoholic, meaning Andrews was forced to become a breadwinner for her parents. 

In Home, she wrote: ‘My mother was terribly important to me, and I know how much I yearned for her in my youth but I don’t think I truly trusted her.’

Though she has been in the world of showbiz since she was a child, these days, public appearances by Andrews are rare. 

In April last year, she was seen for the first time in seven months as she stepped out in The Hamptons for a shopping trip, using a walking cane to support herself as she went from one of the stores into her car.  

Ahead of the musical icon’s 90th birthday, Sound Of Music actresses Angela Cartwright (Brigitta Von Trapp) and Debbie Turner (Marta) revealed what she was really like behind the scenes. 

Speaking to HELLO! Magazine, they shared memories of filming the musical together 60 years ago in Salzburg. 

Debbie, 69, said: ‘She was very much the same person off camera as she was on camera – she was loving and kind and sweet and hilarious. She was really fun.

‘If we were misbehaving a little bit or being rambunctious, or we had to wait around before shooting because it was raining, she would take us off to the side and play her guitar or tell us jokes.’

Angela, who was just 12 during filming and is now 73, added: ‘We felt as though she was our real Fraulein. She’s always been so warm to us.’

Over her seven-decade career, the Oscar winner has had a slew of memorable roles as a star of the stage and the screen.

But, arguably, none of them are more iconic than Mary Poppins, the Walt Disney film directed by Robert Stevenson, with songs written and composed by the Sherman Brothers.

The 1964 film, which combines live-action and animation, was actually Andrews’ first feature film of her career, which ended up winning her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2022, the Surrey native revealed that it was the music that first grabbed her attention and drew her to the role. 

‘It was a brand new thing in my life that I’d never done before. It was for Walt Disney, of course, and the songs in Mary Poppins had a kind of Vaudeville quality to them,’ Andrews explained.

‘I think it’s what attracted me to the role, because all that kind of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Jolly Holiday music was very much like the kind of things that you hear in English vaudeville.’

Considering that her parents were vaudeville performers and that she, herself, was trained in the genre while growing up, it’s easy to see why Andrews would be attracted to the role and the project as a whole.

Along with the familiarity of the music, the actress also revealed how the nanny’s costume design, which came from the mind of her then-husband, Tony Walton, helped her grasp the magical qualities of the Mary Poppins character.

Andrews recalled that Walton explained to her in depth why Mary Poppins had such fun fabrics lining the inside of her clothes, but no crazy outward designs.

‘Because I think that’s what gives her pleasure. Very formal on the outside, and a little bit wicked on the inside,’ Walton said of Mary Poppins at the time, which turned out to be invaluable information for Andrews.

‘It completely gave me a clue as to her character. Big, big help for me,’ the performer would confess.

From a screenplay by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, based on P. L. Travers’s book series Mary Poppins, the film version was released in August 1964 to critical acclaim and commercial success.

It went on to become the highest-grossing film of 1964, and receive 13 Academy Awards nominations, a record for any film released by Walt Disney Studios, winning five, including Best Original Music Score.

After starring alongside her parents as a child actress and singer, and appearing on the West End in 1948, Andrews rose to prominence starring in such Broadway musicals as My Fair Lady (1956) and Camelot (1960).

The role in Mary Poppins (1964) kicked off her film career, and was quickly followed up the next year with the role Maria von Trapp in The Sound Of Music (1965).

Over the course of the next 20 years she worked with such acclaimed directors as husband Blake Edwards, George Roy Hill and Alfred Hitchcock, and starred in films like Hawaii (1966), Torn Curtain (1966), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Star! (1968), The Tamarind Seed (1974), 10 (1979), S.O.B. (1981), Victor/Victoria (1982), That’s Life (1986) and Duet For One (1986).

More recently, Andrews has voiced the narrator Lady Whistledown in the two seasons of the Netflix series Bridgerton (2020-present).