Renee: ‘My face is like this because I am happy’

Renee Zellweger thinks all of the conversation about her face is "silly".

The actress claimed her face has transformed because she is now happy, healthy and living a “peaceful” life.

She told People magazine in a statement that “I’m glad folks think I look different! I’m living a different, happy, more fulfilling life, and I’m thrilled that perhaps it shows.”

The chatter started after Zellweger appeared on the red carpet at the Elle magazine 21st annual Women in Hollywood event. The actress looked so different from her Bridget Jones’s Diary days that some questioned whether it was really the same person.

The speculation about why she looked so different reached such a fevered pitch that Zellweger decided to face it. She said: “It seems the folks who come digging around for some nefarious truth which doesn’t exist won’t get off my porch until I answer the door.”

She credited her new look to a much healthier lifestyle. “My friends say that I look peaceful. I am healthy. For a long time I wasn’t doing such a good job with that. I took on a schedule that is not realistically sustainable and didn’t allow for taking care of myself. Rather than stopping to recalibrate, I kept running until I was depleted and made bad choices about how to conceal the exhaustion. I was aware of the chaos and finally chose different things.

“People don’t know me in my 40s. People don’t know me as [healthy] for a while. Perhaps I look different. Who doesn’t as they get older? But I am different. I’m happy.”

Zellweger said she has found happiness with boyfriend Doyle Bramhall II.