EXCLUSIVE: Jamie Lee Curtis' Sad Final Days Revealed — The Heartbreaking Reason She's Secretly Planning Shock Retirement Despite Career Renaissance
Jamie Lee Curtis’ sad final days have been revealed.
Sept. 12 2025, Published 12:00 p.m. ET
Jamie Lee Curtis is quietly preparing to leave Hollywood behind to avoid the rejection and heartbreak she saw her legendary parents endure in their later years, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The 66-year-old actress, whose parents were big-screen icons Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, has been enjoying a remarkable career resurgence following her Oscar-winning turn in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Is Curtis Plotting An Exit From Hollywood?
Curtis is planning to step away from Hollywood on her own terms.
Yet despite a string of new projects, including the new Freaky Friday sequel, Curtis recently admitted she has been plotting her own retreat from the industry for decades.
"I witnessed my parents lose the very thing that gave them their fame and their life and their livelihood, when the industry rejected them at a certain age," Curtis said.
She added: "I watched them reach incredible success and then have it slowly erode to where it was gone. And that's very painful."
Curtis said: "I have been prepping to get out, so that I don't have to suffer the same as my family did. I want to leave the party before I'm no longer invited."
'Freakier Friday' Marks Career Highlight Amid Exit Plans
The Oscar winner admits she has been preparing to retire for decades.
Friends claim Curtis is now "constantly talking" about her plan to "step away from Hollywood with dignity" despite her career renaissance.
One source said: "Jamie has had the kind of career comeback most actors only dream of, but she refuses to wait until the phone stops ringing. But she would rather choose the exit herself. She's always been a rebel."
But her decision to retire is all rooted in trauma over how she saw her parents treated by the showbiz machine, so it's a sad end to the end of her days.
Curtis insists she has been "self-retiring for 30 years," by carefully balancing high-profile roles with long breaks away from the spotlight.
Her recent return as Tess Coleman in Freaky Friday 2, this time playing a grandmother opposite Lindsay Lohan, was a career highlight, but she admitted it came with pressure.
Wrinkles Called 'Map of a Life Well Lived' By Actress
She recently returned to film 'Freakier Friday' alongside Lindsay Lohan.
"In Freakier Friday, I had to look pretty, I had to pay attention to (flattering) lighting, and clothes and hair and makeup and nails," she said.
"That was harder than playing a messy alcoholic in The Bear."
Her candor has resonated with fans and colleagues who see Curtis as one of the few Hollywood stars unafraid to confront aging publicly.
A longtime advocate of natural beauty, she has rejected cosmetic procedures and often described wrinkles as "the map of a life well lived."
Industry insiders say that commitment makes her unusual in an era when many female actors feel compelled to conceal their age.
Curtis said she considers aging a gift.
"I'm talking about expanding intellectually," she declared.
"I'm an autodidact and an opsimath – a late-in-life learner. I feel very fortunate that I'm having more creative opportunities – I'm getting to do what I've wanted to do since I was a teen. I'm starting to produce and direct things."
She's Determined to Avoid Same Painful Career Fade
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Curtis insists aging is a gift and embraces natural beauty.
Despite her optimism, those close to Curtis say the shadow of her parents' decline still weighs heavily.
Leigh, remembered for Psycho (1960), and Curtis, famed for Some Like It Hot (1959), both struggled to find meaningful roles as they aged.
"Jamie has never forgotten that," said a family friend. "She loved them, but she also saw how cruel the industry could be to older actors."
For now, Curtis continues to juggle acting with producing and family life.
But she has made clear that when the time comes, she will bow out on her own terms – and without regret.
