According to a recent article by The Daily Mail, Thorn Birds star Rachel Ward recently spoke out about some cruel comments from her followers on a social media post. Last month, the 68-year-old actress thanked fans on Instagram for their support throughout 2025. In 1983, just months after meeting on the set of the miniseries The Thorn Birds, Rachel married Bryan Brown, 78, to run a beef cattle property in Australia. Rachel Ward's tweet, which promoted her farm work, was met with some hurtful remarks from her followers."I've read that she is 68 years old. It appears much older! One person commented, "I'm 62 and can't believe she's only a few years older than me," while another made a similarly scathing statement: "OMG, what on earth happened to you?" You were really attractive?" View this post on Instagram Instagram PostRachel's appearance, according to another critic, was the result of "years of neglect." One of the many followers who jumped to Rachel's defense wrote:"For god's sake, horrible comments – she was, is beautiful and doing an incredible job." Rachel replied:"I appreciate you coming to my defense, dear lady." "I just feel bad for those poor people who are so afraid of getting older." They will discover that letting go of youth and beauty is the greatest freedom for women.""There is so much more to life, but it was lovely while it lasted." View this post on Instagram Instagram PostWhat is Rachel doing now?Renowned actress Rachel Ward is now living a quiet and peaceful life with her husband, Bryan Brown. Ward and Brown have been married since 1983, when they met on the set of The Thorn Birds. The couple shares three children: Rosie, Matilda, and Joe.Rachel Ward owns a beef farm with her husband and is embracing the slow life. She originally detailed her journey from actor to regenerative farmer on her New South Wales home in her 2023 documentary, Rachel's Farm.The 68-year-old actress discussed the decision, which started decades earlier when the pair purchased her future property in the Nambucca Valley as a family vacation home, on Mamamia's podcast MID in 2025:"We purchased the 100 acres as a type of lifestyle hideaway, and we had approximately thirty cars there" Rachel told host Holly Wainwright, "There was the guy that we bought it from, and he continued to manage it."Rachel Ward said:"We didn't travel much. We didn't go overseas much. I've never been to Bali or places like that, so [instead] we'd get in the car and go up to the farm — the kids are very much country kids." According to Rachel Ward's descriptions in interviews, her oppressive childhood home followed a Victorian ideology in which children were seen rather than heard. She has always desired to raise her three children in a very different setting because of this:"I definitely grew up in a very patriarchal society, and that was one of the things I wanted to get away from."The affluent society of Oxfordshire is very different from her farm life in rural NSW these days. Rachel Ward added:"I love a rural lifestyle, and I didn't realise how much I would enjoy it, and I think maybe it was that time of life. I was not really interested in a social life anymore, the entertainment industry was getting harder and harder, and obviously, the gender and age issues come into that."