Five things Renée Zellweger has said about wellness

Renée Zellweger is notoriously private, shunning showbiz events unless she's promoting a project she's worked on, and you definitely won't find her on social media (more on that later).

The actress, 54, rarely speaks out about how she likes to train, unwind, or eat - although like any A-lister worth their salt, she's been seen more than once sipping on a vibrant green juice.

And, to be honest, it's no surprise. Taking on the title role in 2001 romcom Bridget Jones's Diary - plus sequels in 2004 and 2016 - required her to gain and lose substantial amounts of weight in a short time, putting her appearance and body firmly in the public sphere - where it has sadly remained, to this day.

When the first Bridget Jones film was released, Renee told The Guardian that she never regarded Bridget as being 'fat'. She said: 'She has a different body type to me, but it reflects the different lifestyles that we lead, and that's what she chooses. It makes her happy to have Chardonnay and some extra Milk Tray, so why shouldn't she?'

In 2016, upon the release of the second sequel - Bridget Jones's Baby - she lamented to Vogue about the unrelenting interest in her shape which again was piqued by her resurrection of the lonely singleton.

She said: 'I put on a few pounds. I also put on some breasts and a baby bump. Bridget is a perfectly normal weight, and I’ve never understood why it matters so much. No male actor would get such scrutiny if he did the same thing for a role.'

But it seems that Renée simply can't please everyone with how she approaches her work, and she was accused of being "potentially triggering to plus size people" when she wore a fat-suit and prosthetics for the lead role in 2022 drama All About Pam.

With a fourth Bridget Jones movie on the way, it remains to be seen how Renée chooses to bring her back to life - but you can be sure that *everyone* will have an opinion on it.

So what exactly does Renée Zellweger do to stay fit and well - and rise above the constant discourse about her appearance? We took a very deep dive to find out...

She exercises for mental health

Renée told the Mail Online: 'Wherever I move, or wherever I’m stationed, or whatever phase of life I’m in, the gym is my common denominator.

'I move to LA? I find my gym. I get to Santa Fe? I find my gym. In New York? Found my gym.'

But she's not going just to burn calories and maintain her health, it's much deeper. She told Glamour that working out and exercising is crucial for her mental health. ‘I have a lifestyle that involves keeping my sanity by going to the gym,’ she said.

But it's running which holds a special place in her heart, explaining that she finds it the best way to connect with her inner self.

She said: ‘It’s my outlet, the one thing I do during the day that is mine and mine alone. I don’t want to work with a trainer, and I don’t want to go with friends to the gym. It’s my solitude, and I need it.'

She finds peace in nature

During lockdown, Renée embraced her love for gardening, finding herself digging deep into the soil, observing neighbourhood squabbles between her garden's furry residents, and enjoying the mindful practices of planting and weeding.

She told Harper's Bazaar: ‘'I was outside every day, building things and planting things. Nature does what it does and, you know, the squirrels and I were at war. Like: “Why you got to dig that big hole there?”

'I’m out there every day with my shovel and my bucket.'

Privacy and 'real life' are more important than posts and likes

MEGA//Getty Images

Renée and her partner Ant Anstead with one of her dogs

Renée's partner, Ant Anstead, posts almost daily to Instagram - but she doesn't even have an account. She previously explained her reluctance to use the @reneezellweger account Instagram has reserved just for her comes down to her innate belief in privacy - and because she's too busy to scroll.

She told The Sunday Times, 'Yeah, well, I don't pay much attention to any of that. I don't think it would be a good thing for me. I have a list of things I like to get done every day.'

When probed by the Los Angeles Times about social media use, Renée was reflective. She said: 'I think about this a lot. And I think about the way that I grew up and the way that I was raised. My parents are very private people. And we didn’t talk about family things out in public. And I just feel uncomfortable with it.

'I think our generation is probably the last to have some expectation of privacy. And so it’s a peculiar thing when it doesn’t occur to the younger generation that it’s not weird at all to pull out your phone and take a picture of somebody a foot from their face without saying hello, because that’s just the nature of things these days. And it’s perfectly normal. And I get that. I completely understand it. And I have no problem with it.'

She also told Harper's Bazaar that she's not glued to her phone, adding that she doesn't 'look at my phone sometimes until six o’clock at night', and when she does, it's for useful exploits, like learning Norwegian via an app.

She takes work/life balance very seriously

Renée took a conscious step back from the limelight in 2010, before returning to Hollywood six years later. During this brief break from the public eye, she started seeing a therapist who helped her find herself again.

She told Vulture: 'I wasn’t healthy. I wasn’t taking care of myself. I was the last thing on my list of priorities.

'[My therapist] recognised that I spent 99 per cent of my life as the public persona and just a microscopic crumb of a fraction in my real life. I needed to not have something to do all the time, to not know what I’m going to be doing for the next two years in advance. I wanted to allow for some accidents. There had to be some quiet for the ideas to slip in.'

She's pro-ageing

Just like Pamela Anderson, who recently declared 'anti-ageing is a lie', Renée embraces the journey of seeing the passing of time.

She told Instyle that ‘ageing is a privilege', adding: ‘It's not aging. It's growing! It's acquisition of the most valuable things: experience and knowledge and grace and insight.'

Echoing these sentiments, she told The Sunday Times Style: 'To be vibrant and beautiful you must embrace your age, otherwise you are living apologetically, and to me that's not beautiful at all.’

In the Vulture interview, she touched upon rumours that she had undergone plastic surgery, claims which she has never confirmed, nor denied, and how the experience had been challenging for her.

She said: 'Well, because there's a value judgment that's placed on us. As if it somehow is a reflection of your character – whether you're a good person or a weak person or an authentic person. And the implication that I somehow needed to change what was going on because it wasn't working.

'That makes me sad. I don't look at beauty in that way. And I don't think of myself in that way. I like my weird quirkiness, my off-kilter mix of things. It enables me to do what I do. I don't want to be something else. I got hired in my blue jeans and cowboy boots with my messy hair. I started working like that. I didn't have to change to work. So why was I suddenly trying to fit into some mould that didn't belong to me?'