Four Weddings and a Funeral star Andie MacDowell—who is also the mom of Margaret Qualley—thought she was “literally falling apart” amid her piriformis syndrome diagnosis.

Andie MacDowell is getting candid about her heath.

The Four Weddings and a Funeral star opened up about her struggles with piriformis syndrome, a muscle condition that compresses the sciatic nerve—which runs from the lower back down to the feet—causing inflammation.

Recounting how pain was initially “shooting down my leg,” Andie shared during a recent appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show. “I thought I was gonna have to have a hip replacement.”

The 66-year-old said her condition was only exacerbated when she started riding her indoor bike “like a crazy person.”

“It’s not appropriate for my body, and I ended up with bad knees and a bad hip,” she continued. “I thought I was literally falling apart.”

Fortunately, the Maid actress ended up not needing surgery. Still, Andie now has to work out her hips and bottom every day to prevent flare-ups so her body “doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“It’s a miracle,” she shared of her treatment, adding that “the good news is my pieces are fine.”

She told host Drew Barrymore, “My knees are good except for aging. They’ve aged.”

But in addition to changing her workout regimen, the Groundhog Day alum has also opted for a quieter lifestyle—trading in the hustle and bustle of Hollywood for South Carolina—as part of her new lease on life.

“Once my kids left, I felt this huge void in my life because they were so important to me,” Andie—who shares daughters Rainey Qualley, 35, and Margaret Qualley, 30, as well as son Justin Qualley, 38, with ex Paul Qualley—explained. “Margaret was really telling me I was supposed to be having the time of my life, but I wasn’t.”

Since her relocation, Andie is “happier now than I have been in a long time.”

“I’m having the time of my life now,” she added. “It’s really good.”

For more candid celeb quotes about aging, keep reading.

Heidi Klum

“I don’t think of getting older as looking better or worse; it’s just different. You change, and that’s okay. Life is about change,” she told Self.

“There’s no such thing as anti-aging. We’re all aging, period. Women take it as something personal that they are getting older. They think that they failed somehow by not staying 25. This is crazy to me because my belief is that it’s a privilege to get older—not everybody gets to get older,” she told Access Hollywood.

“Historically when women have made strides of some type, culturally things rise up to oppress them. Right now I feel like we’ve made a lot of strides, but nobody’s allowed to age or look pregnant. I feel all of that stuff has gotten worse. It’s a brilliant way to keep people enslaved, by having them horrified by themselves. Well I refuse to feel shame about being human,” she told the Los Angeles Times.

“When I turned 40, I was like, huh. I accept myself more now. It was much more comforting,” she told Harper’s Bazaar.

“I’m actually happier with my body now… because the body I have now is the body I’ve worked for. I have a better relationship with it. From a purely aesthetic point of view, my body was better when I was 22, 23. But I didn’t enjoy it. I was too busy comparing it to everyone else’s,” she told Popsugar.

“Gravity and wrinkles are fine with me. They’re a small price to pay for the new wisdom inside my head and my heart. If my breasts fall down to the floor and everything starts to sag, becoming hideous and gross, I won’t worry,” as she told Bustle. 

“F–k you. I’m 50. That’s what I’m going to say when I turn 50. Sorry,” as she told Popsugar. 

“Here is my biggest takeaway after 60 years on the planet: There is great value in being fearless. For too much of my life, I was too afraid, too frightened by it all. That fear is one of my biggest regrets,” as the told PopSugar. 

“When you’re 16, you think 28 is so old! And then you get to 28 and it’s fabulous. You think, then, what about 42? Ugh! And then 42 is great. As you reach each age, you gain the understanding you need to deal with it and enjoy it,” she told Bustle. 

“There’s no such thing is aging, but maturing and knowledge. It’s beautiful, I call that beauty,” she told Ok! Magazine.

“I’m baffled that anyone might not think women get more beautiful as they get older. Confidence comes with age, and looking beautiful comes from the confidence someone has in themselves,” she told Net-a-Porter Magazine. 

“People who lie about their age are denying the truth and contributing to a sickness pervading our society—the sickness of wanting to be what you’re not…. I know for sure that only by owning who and what you are can you step into the fullness of life,” she wrote in O Magazine.

“But I think as a woman, you get older, you feel more confident in your sexuality. You’re not as intimidated by it, not as embarrassed by it. Sexuality and femininity is an accumulation of age and wisdom and comfort in your own skin,” she told Glamour.

Source: www.eonline.com