Donna Mills Fires Back at Makeup Critics at 85
Donna Mills, 85, answered an Instagram user who said she wore too much makeup for her age, and she did it on her own terms. In a video that quickly drew over 1.8 million views, the Knots Landing star turned the criticism into a direct rebuke of age-based expectations.
Donna Mills and the viral reply
Mills transformed from her glamorous look into a stereotypical elderly woman before saying, “Sorry, not sorry.” She added, “I like the way I look. This is my style, and style doesn’t have an expiration date.” That line, more than the makeup itself, made the clip land as a public rejection of the idea that women should disappear into age-appropriate invisibility.
Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer were among the names who praised the video, helping push it well beyond a one-off social-media clapback. Mills later wrote on Instagram, “If you told me at 85 I’d be going viral on social media, I wouldn’t have believed you…but here we are.”
Tamron Hall Show response
On the Tamron Hall Show, Mills said the point was larger than her own appearance. “It’s not just about me,” she said. “It’s about women in general and the way women feel about themselves, right? So that’s why I wanted to shout back at them and say, ‘Wait a minute. No, no, I don’t accept that.’ And I’m not going to be quiet about it.”
She was blunter about the industry around her, calling it “not forgiving to women and aging.” Mills also said, “We’re living longer. We’re healthier. So, this isn’t like the end. You don’t hit 70 or 75 or 80 and it’s over. No, it’s just a new time.”
Abby Cunningham keeps speaking
Mills, who gained fame as Abby Cunningham in Knots Landing, has spent decades in a business that still measures women differently once they age past the usual leading-lady window. Her own framing was practical: “When you look good and you know you look good, you feel good, right?” and, when asked about touch-ups, “Well, I fix it.”
That pushback matters because it was not posed as a branding exercise. Mills said she has always believed speaking up and speaking out lands best “with a wink, not a jab,” and she used that tone to turn a social-media insult into a broader ageism rebuttal. She is scheduled to appear in the thriller Abused this summer, keeping her visible in a market that still rewards women who keep showing up on their own terms.
