Renee Zellweger has fiercely defended her movie heroine Bridget Jones ahead of the release of the fourth Bridget movie – Mad About The Boy.

The actress, 55, returns to her most famous role, this time playing Bridget in her fifties and a single mother of two following the death of her husband Mark Darcy. 

It’s been over 20 years since Renee first played Helen Fielding’s romantic diarist, and over the past two decades some aspects of Bridget’s character and the first three film’s plotlines have not aged well.

The character first appeared in a column in The Independent and when Fielding released Bridget Jones’ Diary in 1996, it quickly became a bestseller.

The book was adapted for the screen in 2001, and the sequel The Edge of Reason followed in 2004, and then Bridget Jones’s Baby hit cinemas in 2016.

In all iterations of the franchise, Bridget is known for her obsessive calorie counting, chain-smoking and love of wearing big knickers. The character traits have come under scrutiny in recent years, with Bridget criticised as toxic.

Renee Zellweger has fiercely defended her movie heroine Bridget Jones ahead of the release of the fourth Bridget movie – Mad About The Boy

It’s been over 20 years since Renee first played Helen Fielding’s diarist, and over two decades some aspects of Bridget’s character and the first three film’s plotlines have not aged well

Even Renee herself admitted in a recent interview with Vogue that ‘HR would have something to say about it’ when asked about her character’s work affair with Hugh Grant in the first film.

But in a new interview, Renee has hit back at the woke commentary surrounding her character insisting: ‘I don’t find it toxic, in my opinion. I love Bridget Jones. I’ve always loved Bridget Jones, and I love her more with every reunion.’ 

‘I never thought there was anything wrong with her,’ she added to The Sun. ‘I’d always thought of it more generally as a representation of how we pick on ourselves about things that are entirely of no consequence — because she’s not an overweight person.

‘And she’s cute and there’s nothing at all wrong with her or her experiences or where she is,’ she added, pointing out Bridget’s ‘self-deprecating’ atтιтude and her ‘optimism.’

Mad About The Boy has moved on from the first movie’s weight jibes, instead focusing on Bridget’s age.

Set in the years after Mark’s tragic death, Bridget finds herself in the middle of a battle for her affections between boytoy Roxster, played by Leo Woodall, and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s teacher character Mr. Wallaker.

And Renee has words for anyone criticising the ‘cougar’ storyline, musing that ‘people are talking about all the films that are showing this dynamic as the central relationship. I have no regrets. This is nothing new in society.’

Leo, 28, also recently said that he’s pleased to see age gap couples depicted on screen – especially where the woman is the elder of the pair. 

Renee has hit back at the woke commentary surrounding her character insisting: ‘I don’t find it toxic, in my opinion. I love Bridget Jones. I’ve always loved Bridget Jones’

In Mad About The Boy Bridget finds herself in the middle of a battle for her affections between boytoy Roxster, played by Leo Woodall, and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mr. Wallaker (pictured)

‘When two people find the connection, why shouldn’t they see where it goes without judgment?’ he told Stellar Magazine. 

‘Both dynamics should be equally normalised. It’s a good thing that we’re getting the reverse’ Leo continued. 

‘Because it’s not uncommon – it’s just not portrayed much in movies.’

Helen Fielding meanwhile is also hoping the latest film will smash the idea that women have a ‘Sєxual sell-by date’.

Speaking ahead of the film’s release this week on Valentine’s Day, Helen, 66, said: ‘I really wanted to smash the idea with this movie that there’s a Sєxual sell-by-date for women and not for men, and stick it to the awful cougar stereotype.

‘It makes me think of a woman in animal print leering over a friend of my son’s, going, ‘Do you want a sherry, darling?’

Renee has words for anyone criticising the ‘cougar’ storyline, declaring: ‘I have no regrets’ (pictured in the new movie with Leo Woodall)

‘It’s got to stop because it’s really not reflecting what’s happening.’

Speaking to The Sunday Times, she added: ‘For years and years we’ve seen Hollywood show men 40 years older than their partners, and it’s not even discussed.

‘Now movies are finally exploring a desire between younger men and older women that’s reciprocal, not transactional. 

Mad About The Boy will be released in UK cinemas on February 13.