A few weeks ago on January 29, Christie Brinkley turned heads when she showed up at New York City’s Gramercy Park Hotel for her 65th birthday party, and even though she looks like she hasn’t aged much since she was a model in the ’70s, she revealed that she’s never felt more beautiful or confident today.

“I actually think so,” the model told Us Weekly when asked if she’s more confident now. “Around 50, you start letting yourself off the hook, and you have a real awareness of priorities and what really matters. Others’ opinions just don’t have power over you anymore. The only opinions that really matter to you are those of the people you love.” And these days, it’s not only her family and friends that are letting Christie know just how great she looks, everyone tells her, and she told the outlet if she is all about that flattery.

Christie Brinkley
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“Let me put it this way: When I started doing the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue [in 1979], I was very concerned about trying to live up to the image they projected of this hot body in a bathing suit,” the Vegas Vacation actress explained. “At the time, I became very self-conscious. I’m kind of in the same situation with aging. Aging is inevitable. If I’m lucky, I’m going to be running around as an older woman with my hard-earned wrinkles. It’s inevitable.”

Christie is currently single but she’s been married four times in the past — most notably to Billy Joel from 1985 to 1994 and to Peter Cook from 1996 to 2008 — but she said that the dating scene for her is a tad rough today. “Fewer and farther between! But it’s fun. It’s not that easy to meet people,” she said, adding, “When you’re younger, you assume that you’re so young, nobody’s married yet. But now you assume that everybody is married, so it’s hard to actually meet people.”

And you can forget about her walking down the aisle for the fifth time. “I don’t really see a reason for marriage,” Christie revealed. “Maybe there’s tax advantages or inheritance advantages or hospital advantages. But I always thought of doing it to have kids. And since I’m not having any more kids, why complicate things? I would have a big celebration party, though.”

Even though the mother-of-three is well known for not looking like her age at all, she once revealed just how difficult it is to stick to those standards. “I’m painted into a corner where I’m supposed to look good for my age all the time, and it’s inevitable that age is going to catch up with you,” she exclusively told Closer Weekly while at a cocktails and conversation event for her new show American Beauty Star in New York City. “I don’t want to have to be anything other than what I am.”

She added, “I want to feel healthy, strong and fit. So if somebody says, ‘Let’s go skiing!’ I can do it.”