World’s oldest woman smoked and drank wine regularly and still lived to 122

In the annals of human biology, Jeanne Calment stands alone. When she passed away in 1997 at the age of 122, she didn’t just break a record; she redefined the perceived boundaries of the human lifespan. Decades later, her life remains a source of astonishment for scientists and laypeople alike. How did a woman who famously indulged in a steady diet of chocolate, red wine, and cigarettes outlast every other verified human in history? A leading expert believes the answer wasn’t found in her pantry, but in her psyche.

A Century and a Quarter of History

Born in 1875 in the sun-drenched town of Arles in southern France, Calment lived for exactly 122 years and 164 days. Her age is not a matter of local legend; it is one of the most thoroughly documented cases in gerontology. Demographers and historians have scoured birth registries, census data, marriage certificates, and photographic archives to verify her timeline. To this day, she remains the only person in recorded history to have eclipsed the 119-year mark, a feat recognized by both the scientific community and Guinness World Records.

To grasp the scale of her life is to view the modern world in its entirety. Calment was alive for the invention of the light bulb and the telephone. She watched the Eiffel Tower rise above the Parisian skyline. She lived through the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, two World Wars, the dawn of the automobile, the rise of the American Civil Rights Movement, and the birth of the internet.

Port Wine and Two Pounds of Chocolate

If you are looking for a rigid health regimen, you won’t find it in Arles. Calment was famously uninterested in the restrictive diets favored by modern wellness gurus. She consumed roughly two pounds of chocolate per week and insisted on dessert with every meal. Perhaps most shocking to medical professionals was her smoking habit, which she maintained from the age of 21 until she finally quit at 117. She was also known to enjoy port wine in moderation well into her twilight years.

Her physical vitality, however, remained intact far longer than expected. She rode her bicycle until she was 100. On that centennial birthday, she notably walked to every house in Arles to personally thank her neighbors for their well-wishes.

Even as her senses began to fail, her spirit remained buoyant. On her 120th birthday, she told a huddle of reporters: “I see badly, I hear badly, I can’t feel anything, but everything’s fine.”

The Secret: A Biological Immunity to Stress

The enduring fascination with Calment lies in the “why.” If it wasn’t her diet or her lifestyle habits, what was the catalyst for such extreme longevity?

Jean-Marie Robine, a prominent medical researcher who worked closely with Calment’s physician to document her biography, suggests that her greatest asset was her temperament. Speaking with The New York Times, Robine posited that Calment possessed a rare, perhaps even biological, resilience to the pressures of life.

“I think she was someone who, constitutionally and biologically speaking, was immune to stress,” Robine noted. He recalled one of her personal mantras as the ultimate key to her endurance: “If you can’t do anything about it, don’t worry about it.”

Humor as a Shield

Calment’s longevity was also bolstered by a razor-sharp wit that she maintained until the end. She famously joked that she had “only one wrinkle, and she was sitting on it.” By refusing to let the anxieties of the world take root in her physical body, she may have avoided the inflammatory toll that chronic stress takes on human cells.

Jeanne Calment’s life serves as a profound reminder that while we obsess over what we put into our bodies, how we process the world around us may be just as vital. Her “marvelous” outlook—one of calm, humor, and radical acceptance—remains a timeless lesson for us all.