There’s been some excitement this week following Courteney Cox’s admission that she regrets having certain plastic surgery procedures. This could partly be because those of us who saw her on a recent Graham Norton Show did a serious double take. We’re thrilled she’s clawing her way back to looking “more like the person that I was” as opposed to her evil cartoon sister.

The main reason, however, is because celebrities owning up to having cosmetic procedures is a rare event. Lying about image related stuff is standard practice for A-listers and the number one lie is that they’re not ageing at standard human rate.

That, of course, is only the tip of a very long list of Little Midlife Lies. Once they get to their 40s, the lies – a mixture of self delusion, self-aggrandising ruses and outright fantasies – start coming thick and fast and we civilian midlifers are not far behind them. We’re pretty close in fact. Granted we might not have to lie so often about cosmetic enhancements, but otherwise Little Midlife Lies (or LMLs) are universal in nature and such an accepted part of getting older that the midlife liar may not even recognise them as lies.

Is not owning up to wearing Spanx when Sue (who’s the same size she was in 1980) remarks on your weight loss a lie, or just common sense? Is not advertising having made the marmalade dishonest, or is it perfectly OK, especially if you could have made the marmalade had you wanted to? For us midlifers there’s only one answer – LMLs are part of getting older; younger people may feel differently.

Below are the most common Little Midlife Lies that we’re (probably) all guilty of. If you’re Courteney’s age you should score 10 out of 14, minimum. If you’re older, 12.

The Little Midlife Lie list