Older moms like Hilary Swank are kinder and more compassionate, though their cruel trolls certainly aren’t

HILARY Swank proudly took to Instagram on Monday to announce the birth of her twins, saying: “It hasn’t been easy. But boy (and girl!) was it worth it.”

She added that she’s posting “from pure heaven.”

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I hope, of course, that she wasn’t checking out the social media reaction to her news – otherwise the 48-year-old Oscar winner would have felt like she’d been sent to hell.

Commenters noted that she is “too old” to be a mother, she is “selfish” and her baby’s first word will be “grandma”.

I can imagine that there is a bit of jealousy because not every woman of every age can fulfill her dream of having a baby.

A multi-millionaire who could afford to pay for any fertility treatment she wanted, Hilary can now hire an army of staff to ease the fatigue.

But surely it’s her prerogative to have a baby if she wants to.

And she says she’s wanted this “for a long time” and put it off because she’s “having a career” and isn’t in the right relationship.

I know a thing or two about being a geriatric mom since I am one. Like Hilary, by the time my son reaches adulthood, I will already be in his sixties.

Just like Hilary, my career and lack of the right man kept me from having children in my twenties.

It was an uphill battle when I finally decided it was the right time for me.

It came at such a stressful time in my life that I endured six years of IVF from hell before finally becoming a mother.

It also got me into a lot of debt, but I was mature enough to know that it was what I really wanted and I don’t regret my decision for a second. I am thankful every day to have my son.

I ask the critics who condemn mothers like me and Hilary to look at the facts.

Yes, having a baby in your 40s would have been utterly ridiculous in the 1950s, but all you have to do is watch an episode of Call The Midwife and see that it was a different world back then.

Women smoked while pregnant and were supposed to be housewives who served their hardworking husbands fried bread and bacon for breakfast.

Now women are more equal to men in the workplace and in life in general.

And we live and work longer. We can’t even get our pensions until we’re in our late 60’s and current life expectancy is 82 years – a full 10 years more of life than it was back in the 1950’s.

So, if biology, science, and lifestyle will allow, why rush to have kids in your 20s or early 30s when you can focus on your career?

There is evidence that older mothers are often better mothers, and having children later in life has been shown to keep you young.

A 2015 study found that women who have children after age 33 are twice as likely to live to age 95 as women who had their last child before age 30.

Scientists from Denmark have found that we are more compassionate and have greater ‘psychological maturity’ than our younger peers, resulting in children having ‘fewer behavioral, social and emotional difficulties’.

Is it any wonder that the number of first births among 40 to 44 year old women has more than doubled in the last 32 years?

The world we live in has changed and the science surrounding having children has changed too.

We all know that fertility declines with age, but now women can get IVF treatment on the NHS up to their early forties and there’s sperm donation, egg freezing. . . the list is endless.

Hilary hasn’t glossed over her journey to motherhood.

She has admitted it’s been a struggle and that she should be commended for her honesty and inspiration, not ridiculed and attacked.

And I hope she has the sense to actually feel a little compassion for the cruel social media bullies who probably didn’t have mothers mature enough to teach them the importance of kindness and compassion.

WORKAHOLIC wildlife host Sir David Attenborough is someone who proves that age can only be a number.

He’s still making £3,342 A MINUTE from working on his TV shows at the age of 96.

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Good for him.

THREE JEERS FOR E4 FARCE

E4 is recruiting contestants for a new show they’re calling a “groundbreaking experiment.”

Well, not really groundbreaking – it’s a new take on Love Island, but instead of people settling with one person, the contestants become part of Throuples.

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It arrives on the back of boxer David Haye showing off his throuple arrangement with Saturday singer Una Healy and model Sian Osborne. He called them his “queens”.

When Una quit, she was quickly replaced by personal trainer Mica Jova, and David once again showed off his bikini-clad prized possessions on social media.

The throuple idea might seem like a modern, forward-thinking way of conducting a relationship, but it almost always involves a straight male with multiple female partners.

And that is undoubtedly what will happen in this new program.

You’d think Channel 4 would be monitoring it closely.

But they seem to have lost all morals as they are currently airing a show where adults show their naked bodies to children as young as 14.

This program is shocking, repulsive, and creepy, and now I’m sure the latest “groundbreaking experiment” will be sinister and misogynistic.

After Una ended their relationship, she was “embarrassed” to have gone public and now wants “nothing to do with” her ex-partners.

So I’m afraid to imagine how the young TV contestants will feel after shagging TWO random strangers on the show in a desperate bid for fame.

All the fuss about Tupperware is a little crazy, isn’t it?

Yes we all have something behind the cupboard that belonged to our grandma and yes the queen kept her cereal in it.

But is it so catastrophic for the modern world if it dies out?

Isn’t it easy to go to a supermarket and buy their cheap imitations?

Run the lifeboat

POOR OnlyFans model Michaela Ogilvie got stuck in a cave while taking topless photos.

She said: “I’ve seen signs of ebb and flow but I don’t know exactly what they mean.

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“I thought it would be really cool to undress in the cave.

“It took me a while to undress. I looked at the sea and everything was so peaceful. I only managed four photos.”

Amazingly, a lifeguard crew was there within 27 minutes of her 911 call and she said they were “amazing and so friendly”.

I bet they were.

After all, it’s a pleasant change from rescuing migrants.

DIAL DOWN, SOPHIE

ACTRESS Sophie Winkleman and I have very little in common.

She is married to a royal Lord Freddie Windsor, her children go to one of the finest private schools in the country and her cousin is the heir apparent.

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But I agree that kids as young as five don’t need to be given iPads in elementary school.

She even pulled her daughters out of one when they tried to do just that.

But she also supports a campaign by parent group Us For Them to call for under-16s BANNED to use smartphones, which is unrealistic.

It’s a nice idea, but we all know that’s not going to happen now that they’re such a big part of our lives.

And if you can’t convince the posh school you’re paying for to change their stance, it’s going to be difficult to issue a blanket ban.

I’ve never been a fan of tattoos, imagining what they would look like on old and wrinkled skin.

Then I saw Rod Stewart, 78, had one to celebrate his Celtic team’s derby win over Rangers in Glasgow.

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And realized that I didn’t have to imagine anything anymore.

SMOKER to be offered free vape kits in a world first “Swap to Stop” program.

A million puffers – a fifth of England’s total – will receive the aid, which will cost £45million over two years.

Add that to the nearly £10billion annual bill for obesity and alcohol harm treatment and it partly explains why the NHS is so overburdened.

It’s also made me rethink my wine consumption because if we all had a little more willpower, it might ease the pressure.