Making changes a matter of life and death

Rodney Hide. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Lifestyle changes like Rodney Hide's can be prompted by a person's awareness of their own mortality, says psychologist Mary Farrell.

"Obviously you get to a certain point in your life and you know you've only got a number of years left."

Hide disclosed to the Herald on Sunday last year that, only four years ago, he was so depressed that he didn't care whether he lived or died.

He had been on the brink of losing his Parliamentary job, his health and his marriage.

Farrell said an awareness of mortality was not necessarily a sad feeling, but could spark a determination to get what you can out of your remaining years. That can include making physical changes to improve your health and changes in your love life. Hide and his girlfriend Louise Crome, 31, have moved in together in Wellington.

"That might account for the weight loss," Farrell said. "Love's a motivational force, especially if they're younger."

Hide is following in the footsteps of such famous older man-younger woman pairings as Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn (34 years younger), or Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones (25 years younger).