The 50-year-old mother who has spent £10,000 on surgery to look like her daughter

The 50-year-old mother who has spent £10,000 on surgery to look like her daughter

By Katherine Knight and Kelly Strange

With their flowing blonde hair, hourglass figures and slender, toned legs, they could easily pass for twins. Both look fabulous in their matching polka dot dresses and, as Janet and Jane Cunliffe happily recount, potential boyfriends often struggle to tell them apart.

Hardly surprising, as both weigh in at 8st and, save for a couple of inches in height (at 5ft 6in, Jane is two inches taller) and different eye colours (Jane's are brown, Janet's are blue) they are virtually identical.

But Janet and Jane are not twins. They aren't even sisters. They are mother and daughter. And, in what many will see as a depressing indictment of today's youth-obsessed society, Janet confesses to having spent more than £10,000 on plastic surgery in a desperate effort to bridge the 22-year age gap between herself and her daughter.

In this image-conscious age, it is a bittersweet moment for many mothers to confront the fact that their daughter's beauty eclipses her own.

It is a rite of passage that most women, while far from thrilled, are pragmatic enough to accept as a part of life.

But not 50-year-old Janet. She views the small matter of being in her sixth decade as a mere technicality.

She is amused and proud that friends jokingly refer to her and her daughter as Paris and Chantelle after the platinum blonde socialite and the equally platinum former Celebrity Big Brother contestant.

Some might see this as empowering for a woman who is well into middle age. Others might take the view that it is contrary to the laws of Mother Nature - not that Janet has much truck with her anyway.
'Who wouldn't want to look like my daughter?'

As she told the Mail this week: 'It might sound barmy that I had cosmetic surgery to look like my daughter, but she's gorgeous. Who wouldn't want to look like her?

'The way I see it is that she got her looks from me in the first place - mine have just faded with age.

'Seeing how attractive Jane is made me want to get my looks back. Now instead of mum and daughter we look more like twins. I had good genes and good skin, but I needed a helping hand to make me feel better about myself.'

Certainly Janet wasn't always such a head-turner. Just a few years ago, she was a size 14 redhead and felt, she says, dowdy and unattractive.

Not, she insists, that she was ever vain. 'I didn't have time for vanity in my 20s as I was too busy bringing up Jane and her brother, Pete,' she says.

'I didn't pay much attention to myself.'

That changed as she entered her 30s and became increasingly disconsolate with her changing figure.

'Like any woman who's had children, gravity had started to take its toll on my breasts,' she says.

They'd been small to start with, but they had become saggy and it made me depressed. So I booked in for a boob job. At £4,000 my husband wasn't best pleased, but I thought it was worth it,' she says.

Alas, the new breasts weren't enough to save her marriage.

By the age of 40, Janet, by then divorced, had moved to Spain. Her new partner (who she doesn't want to name) ran a swimming pool business and she took on secretarial work.

It was a fresh start, but one which was overshadowed when, in 2003, an implant ruptured.

Restorative surgery was needed and Jane took the opportunity to go from a 34C to a DD.

'I thought if I was going to pay £2,500 I might as well go bigger,' she says. 'I hadn't been that pleased with them the first time round and when Jane came to visit I noticed my bust looked flat in comparison. I wanted to give myself a boost.'

Despite the new breasts, Janet still felt she looked old before her time, and her relationship with her new partner was floundering.

'We'd been living together for eight years, but it wasn't working any more. We argued non-stop and finally, in May last year, I decided to move back home to be with my daughter.'

Happily, Jane was more than willing to provide a berth for her mother while she found her feet.

'It was a tough time and I was a bit of a lost cause,' says Janet. 'I didn't know who I was or where I belonged. I hadn't lived in Britain for so long that I didn't have any friends here. It was a terrible time. I knew I had to sort out my life.'

For Jane, a fun night out was an obvious way to cheer up her mum. But well-meaning as it was, for Janet it only reinforced her feelings of inadequacy.

'I couldn't find anything decent to wear - having lived in Spain, all I had were shorts, T-shirts and scruffy jeans. I had nothing fashionable and couldn't borrow anything from Jane because it was all too small.

'I remember looking at Jane and saying: "I wish I had your figure." I'd had a body just like hers when I was younger but now I was just a blob.

'I began to see that in Spain I'd been living the life of a pensioner and had forgotten how to make the most of myself. I may have been pushing 50, but I still wanted to live life to the full, and why shouldn't I?'
'I envied Jane's crinkle-free eyes and full lips'

Nonetheless, spending time with her daughter's young friends made Jane examine her face and body more closely.

'Jane and her friends are so glamourous and gorgeous that I stood out like a sore thumb. I felt like an old bag,' she says. 'Jane told me not to be so self-critical, but I knew it was true.'

For Janet, socialising with friends her own age, starting a hobby or meeting new people were not going to help. What was holding her back, she felt, was the face staring back in the mirror.

'I remembered only too well when I used to be a lovely looking girl,' she says. 'I'd seen all these older celebrities who somehow managed to turn back the clock and I wondered if I could do the same. At the very least I wanted to give it a try.'

And so Operation Overhaul began. 'I ditched junk food and started to follow the same healthy diet as Jane.

'Out went potatoes and pasta and I started eating grilled chicken salad and green veg,' says Janet.

'Jane didn't drink in the week, so I cut out white wine in the evening and stopped snacking between meals.'

The effects were startling: in four months, Janet lost 2st and could slip into her daughter's size 8 trousers.

For many fifty-something women, a healthy, slender figure would have been enough, but Janet wasn't happy - dropping three dress sizes was all very well, but she still had the face of an older woman.

'I envied Jane's crinkle-free eyes, full lips and luscious, long blonde hair,' says Janet. 'I was desperate to look more like my daughter, but knew no wrinkle creams could ever wind back the clock that far.'

And so, perhaps inevitably, Janet started to consider the more drastic route of cosmetic surgery, initially conducting her research on the internet.

She stumbled across the website of Linda Briggs, a surgery aficionado who has her own business offering guidance and advice to others thinking of going under the knife.

'I decided to give her a ring and ended up speaking to Linda's husband, Mike,' says Janet. 'He said he'd just had his eyes done in Croatia and was thrilled with the results. That was enough for me. I booked pretty much straightaway.

'I had some savings and knew if I wanted to look more like Jane then I'd have to get my eyes done first, and my nose.'
'Men kept doing a double take and asked if we were sisters'

None of this comes cheap, even if prices are competitive abroad. By the time she had totted up her procedures, the bill came to £5,000, including flights and board. Then there was the little matter of telling her daughter.

'She was furious and begged me not to do it,' says Jane. 'It wasn't that she was cross with me for wanting to look like her, it was because she was worried about me having an operation.'

For some, this might have given serious pause for thought. This was, after all, non-essential surgery, and did not come without risk. But Janet was determined.

'I'd made up my mind,' she says. 'As far as I was concerned, I knew what I was doing. I wanted to look younger and felt it would do wonders for my self-esteem.'

And so last September, she flew out to Croatia on her own to undergo the two-hour operation on her nose and eyes, which took place under local anaesthetic.
Like daughter, like mother: Janet, left, and Jane say they enjoy looking like one another

Like daughter, like mother: Janet, left, and Jane say they enjoy looking like one another

'I was a bit frightened, but not enough to put me off,' she says. 'I just decided to put my trust in their hands. It wasn't pleasant, but I got through it.'

She returned a week later, bruised and bandaged, but euphoric after being told by the surgeon that the result would be good, a claim that seemed to be upheld when the bandages were removed, revealing a younger Janet who looked eerily like her daughter.

'I was delighted,' she says. 'It was everything I'd hoped for.'

There were, however, a number of other final touches if Operation Overhaul - or should that be Project Jane? - was to prove fully successful.

'I decided that my lips were too thin, so I had a series of injections to plump them up. They cost around £300 but they make all the difference,' she says.

Then there were the blonde hair extensions, at a cost of several hundred pounds, at a local salon. And finally a new wardrobe of size 6 to 8 clothes.

The effect, it must be said, is certainly startling. 'The first time we went to a local wine bar, we were the centre of attention,' says Janet proudly. 'Men kept doing a double take and all night people asked if we were sisters. We both loved the attention.'
'I love us looking the same'

Just what must Jane really make of it? A family resemblance is one thing, but a mirror image when you look at the woman who gave birth to you is quite another.

And Jane has sometimes had to cope with the fact that some people think she is the 'older' sister.

'It's not because I look older than my years, but just that Mum looks unbelievably young for her age. She looks better than Madonna at 50, which is saying something.

'People ask if I mind that she's transformed herself into me, but I couldn't be more proud. I'm the one who helps her with her hair and clothes, so it's down to me, too. I can hardly accuse Mum of copying my looks when she gave them to me, can I?

'Actually, I love us looking the same, we're closer than ever and she's the sister I always wanted and never had.'

Both 'girls' insist there's no jealousy. 'We're both confident about our looks,' says Jane. 'Men give me just as many compliments as Mum gets, so why would I feel jealous?

'I don't worry about introducing boyfriends to her. I know they'd never get anywhere, even if they did make a move on her.'

In fact, while there have been no shortage of offers from toy boys, Janet is happy being single.

'It's not a competition. This has always been about my own confidence and self-esteem. I haven't done this to get a man, I'm happy spending time with my daughter and reliving my youth, thanks to my new look.'

The question, of course, is where will it all end? For now, Janet says: 'I think I've had enough surgery. I've put myself through enough . . . unless I suddenly start to look really old overnight.'

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