Sharon Horgan reveals 'geriatric' dating fears

Sharon Horgan has opened up about her fears of searching for "geriatric love".

The Youth creator described her midlife anxieties around dating as a "much older woman", telling The Wrap she had based her new show - in which she also stars - on her own real-life worries.

"I was so scared of not meeting someone and sort of ending up a much older woman, kind of out there looking for geriatric love," Sharon, 56, told the outlet. "That was just the opposite of where I thought I'd be at."

The actress, who finalised her divorce from TV producer Jeremy Rainbird in 2019 after marrying in 2005, added she had been taken aback by some of the changes ageing had brought to her body.

"When you get older, your body starts to fail," she reflected.

"It really does, and yet you feel so the same. You absolutely feel the same as you did in your 30s in so many ways, but then your body starts to go, 'F**k you! Your knees are going to creak now, old lady.'"

The new HBO series addressed a specific type of professional middle-aged woman, she explained, and the pressures to retain one's youth that came with ageing.

"There's a horrible industry that targets us all," Sharon, who is currently dating her Bad Sisters co-star Barry Ward, said.

"I'm targeted on a daily basis to fix my face, to correct my body. My daughters are sent the same things. There's no escaping it, and yet we are all so chronically online that we're almost doing it to ourselves."