Brooke Shields found it 'exhilarating' to take her first trip alone at the age of 58

Brooke Shields found it "exhilarating" to take her first trip alone at the age of 58.

The 59-year-old actress - who has daughters Rowan, 21, and Grier, 18, with husband Chris Henchy - told how she felt controlled by her mother, who was also her agent, throughout her life, and visiting her eldest daughter in Italy proved to be a pivotal moment in her life because it was the first time she got to experience somewhere new without other people advising her.

In an extract from her book 'Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old' published by the Daily Mail newspaper, she wrote: "When our eldest, Rowan, went off to study in Italy, I visited her there and spent the days solo while she was in classes. At 58, it was my first time being alone in a foreign city.

"I have spent my whole life travelling the world, but I was always with my mother or a bodyguard or an assistant or my husband or on a movie set with a handler of some kind.

"This trip, there was no assistant director telling me where to go, no PR person instructing me on talking points, no assistant reminding me that I have another Zoom in ten minutes, not even a family member with an obligatory agenda.

"To be roaming around Italy, with no one aware of exactly where I was… it was a bit unsettling. But also exhilarating!

"I wore a baseball cap and sunglasses, which meant I blended in with most American tourists, and that presented another form of freedom. I wandered into cafes and talked to store clerks and sat at the base of the Duomo with a Peroni, gazing up at the stunning architecture.

"I got lost and spent a lot of time on Google Maps, but it felt like a long-overdue rite of passage. I'm coming up to 60, but I'm still growing up and trying new things and learning about myself."