Fire Country Star Diane Farr Shares Swimsuit Photo Celebrating 54

Fire Country star Diane Farr celebrated turning 54 by showing love and pride for her body, both aesthetics and the miracle of creating and carrying life. Farr, 54, shared pictures of herself looking vibrant in a dark blue bikini, using the snaps to highlight women's reproductive rights. "I will be 54 at the end of this summer. Carried three kids. Two of them at the same time. First we need to keep women alive by giving them full access to all medical care. Then we need #ageparity to see them shine. More to come… But today I send hopes for freedom to all who are compromised by legislation that limits and harms and holds us back." Farr is a writer as well as an actress and a mother—here's how she does it. 

Farr cleans when she needs to recharge and reset. "I clean to calm down," she says. "Cleaning has become my western meditation. I move little things into shelves and containers. I'm not sure that it's all that helpful, but it's what I do when I'm stressed and at least I have a clean house afterward. I clean for the first 15 minutes and then figure out who I'm going to call because the best recharge is talking to my girlfriends."

Farr is not a fan of the Paleo Diet (or anything majorly restrictive). "Comfort food is a real and effective thing in my modern life," she says. "I don't see my husband or my children for most of the day, every day, nor do I enjoy the comforts of the cave we sleep in at night. The only thing feeling warm and loving to me from sunrise to sunset in my very non-Paleolithic life is oatmeal for breakfast, a sandwich at lunch and sometimes even a bowl of pasta for dinner. Not usually all on the same day — as I am well within the standards for healthy weight for my body — but I'm not sure I'm willing to give any of that up, ever."

Farr loves that her Fire Country character is unapologetically feisty. "Sharon is fun because Sharon's allowed to be angry, and I feel like we don't often let our women be angry on TV as if that's unattractive," she says. "So she gets to be this whole person, but she's also terribly codependent. As much as she acts like she's right about everything, she's also really over the line in her kids' business and in her husband's business. The wildest thing to me was Tia Napolitano, our showrunner, came to me months ago and said, 'It may look like you die at the end of season 1.' The finale we ended up with is different than where it was originally going, so I was quite relieved."

Farr let herself eat whatever she wanted when pregnant. "I had a great experience! I waited a long time to have children, and I think your experience is based on where you are at in your life," she says. "I did not work out while I was pregnant. I felt like I was having symptoms of a heart attack every time I worked out, so I enjoyed eating like a third grader and gained 55 pounds! I enjoyed having a grilled cheese almost every day! [I lost it] in 3 months by breastfeeding."df44d9eab23ea271ddde7545ae2c09ec

Farr says hiring a nude body double taught her a lot about online dating. "Naked is not something I want to be at work. But it happens kind of regularly at my job," she says. "So regularly that I once requested a 'substitute' naked body to fill in for mine. When I had just given birth to twins. And was still breastfeeding them. 'Cause I didn't need to see my body on the TV in that moment even more than you didn't. Fifteen years later, I find myself single (the twins are thriving, but the marriage is dead). To my stunned surprise, hiring that body double taught me everything I needed to know about online dating — which was a win I needed since dating sites are a blast for exactly no one, but I am also just recognizable enough to where a suitor viewing my profile may tell a friend about the actress they saw on Raya today."