I’m thrilled that Liz Hurley is 60, naked and smiling in a meadow. But when will the nude celeb arms race end? | Emma Beddington

From Hurley to Amanda Holden to Jennifer Aniston and Martha Stewart, women over 50 in the public eye are increasingly taking their clothes off and posing artfully on Instagram. It strikes me as a lot of hard work

Many thoughts came to mind on seeing Elizabeth Hurley’s recent 60th birthday Instagram post, where she is sitting smiling in a meadow, in as she writes, her “birthday suit”. Like, where will this older celebrity nudity arms race end? Jennifer Aniston did a birthday shoot at 40 for GQ; Gwyneth Paltrow posted nudes three years running, culminating in one painted gold at 50; Amanda Holden posed naked on some rocks (ouch) at 53. Now here’s Hurley. In the era of Martha Stewart (now 83) posting semi-clad thirst trap pics, I’m half expecting to see Sir David Attenborough mark his 100th with his modesty preserved only by a strategically placed aardvark (though the patriarchy seems to have ensured men don’t feel compelled to do this).

I also found myself thinking: yes, she looks incredible, but it must be such a slog to look that good, and why bother? There are upsides to the terrifying rise of artificial intelligence – surely one of them is being able to celebrate qualifying for a senior railcard by enjoying a cream tea while fully clothed as a robot creates a sexy nude of you to post? Any candid paparazzi shots seeming to contradict this could also be credibly dismissed as AI-generated.