At the recent Hulaween gala to benefit the New York Restoration Project, Midler reflected on the upcoming milestone

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Bette Midler is reflecting on turning 80 and mourning the recent loss of her The First Wives Club co-star, Diane Keaton.

On Oct. 24, 2025, at the annual Hulaween gala to benefit the New York Restoration Project — which Midler founded in 1995 as a way to broaden access to green spaces for underserved communications in New York — Midler touched on her age.

Calling the 30th annual event “moving,” Midler joked while accepting the gala’s Catalyst Award, “I know what you’re thinking: you’re 77, you’re nearly 80. Do you need a chair? No.”

“But yes, it’s true — I’m no longer a spring chicken,” Midler, who is 79 and will turn 80 in December, continued. “I’m no longer a summer chicken. I’m not even a fall chicken. I’m an endangered chicken at this point. However, I am honored to accept the Catalyst Award tonight because I did do something. I did. I actually did do something.”

Elsewhere in her speech, Midler said, “You know, when you’re old, you remember the old things better than you remember yesterday. You don’t remember what you ate yesterday, but you remember what it felt like to dig in a filthy park and to remove debris and to be amongst people who were like-minded. You really remember that.”

She went on to thank those from her past to whom she said she owed “a tremendous debt.”

“They were miracle workers, like Scott Matthis, who died last year, who helped start [New York Restoration Project]. He had built a model in California called California Restoration Project, California Environmental Project. And he had also invented Adopt a Highway. He put our initial group together and he found our very first executive director, Joe Pupello,” Midler said. “Joe Pupello, I got to say — we’ve had some good ED’s, we’ve had some stars. Joe Pupello was my very first star. He was a visionary, and he was a fire friend. And he was the first person to say to me: ‘Clean, green open space is a right, not a privilege.’ “

Midler’s appearance comes just weeks after she issued a statement following the news that her old friend Diane Keaton had died in California at age 79 on Saturday, Oct. 11.

The Hocus Pocus alum, who starred with Keaton in The First Wives Club, called the actress “brilliant, beautiful [and] extraordinary” in an Instagram post.

“The brilliant, beautiful, extraordinary Diane Keaton has died,” Midler wrote, alongside a black and white photo of her former costar and longtime friend, posing in a suit and hat.

“I cannot tell you how unbearably sad this makes me,” the Broadway star continued. “She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was…oh, la, lala!”

Hawn also reflected that Keaton “stole the hearts of the world and shared (her) genius with millions” and noted that she was “blessed” to work with her on “The First Wives Club.” Hawn, Midler and Keaton starred in the 1996 comedy about women seeking revenge against their ex-husbands.

Hawn remembered their “days starting with coffee in the makeup trailer, laughing and joking, right through to the very last day of filming,” calling it “a roller coaster of love.”

“We agreed to grow old together, and one day, maybe live together with all our girlfriends,” Hawn shared. “Well, we never got to live together, but we did grow older together. Who knows … maybe in the next life. Shine your fairy dust up there, girlfriend. I’m going to miss the hell out of you.”

In her own tribute, Midler remembered Keaton as “brilliant, beautiful” and “extraordinary.”

“I cannot tell you how unbearably sad this makes me,” she wrote. “She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was … oh, la, lala!”