World’s Oldest Living Person Shares Secret To Long Life

A nun who has been named the oldest person on the planet has shared her 'secret' to staying young.

Lucile Randon, known as Sister Andre, lives in Toulon, France, and was this week named the world's oldest person at the age of 118.

And while she starts every day with breakfast and morning mass, her carer says there's something else that has kept her spritely all these years.

Alamy

The staff member at Sister Andre's care home said: "Her glass of wine maintains her and is perhaps her longevity secret. I don’t know – I don’t encourage people to drink a glass of wine everyday!"

Sister Andre, who an no longer see, has lived through two world wars, global pandemics, and survived Covid herself.

She only became the world's oldest inhabitant last week, following the passing of Kane Tanaka on 19 April, who was an incredible 119 years old.

Laurent Toussaint, a computer scientist and amateur tracker for the IDL and the French institute of demographic studies (INED), said Sister Andre 'indeed becomes the oldest, and by far, since the next oldest is a Polish woman who is 115'.

David Tavella, communications director of Sister Andre's nursing home said she is 'happy' with the title.

However, while he said she 'likes very much this attention', Sister Andre wants to go one step further.

He said: "But it's just another step, because her real goal is to overtake Jeanne Calment."

Calment, also from France, was 122 years old when she died in 1997.

In her younger years Sister Andre worked as a governess in Paris before she took her religious vows with the Daughters of Charity.

Alamy

Earlier this year, she received a handwritten New Year's greeting from President Emmanuel Macron.

Speaking in an interview with AFP for her 118th birthday, Sister Andre said: "I was always admired for my wisdom and intelligence, but now people could care less because I'm stubborn. I'm thinking of getting out of this business but they won't let me."

Guinness World Records announced the death of Tanaka on Monday, explaining the 119-year-old had recently been 'hospitalized and discharged repeatedly'.

In a tweet posted by her family, Tanaka is said to have commented: "I was able to come this far with the support of many people. I hope you will continue to have fun, [and be] cheerful and energetic."

Tanaka was born on 2 January 1903 and lived in her later life at a rest home in Fukuoka, Japan.

Topics: Guinness World Record

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers is LADbible's Editorial Lead. After graduating from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History, he went on to write for the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express. So as you can imagine, he’s spent many a night wondering just how useful that second language has been. But c'est la vie.

@SmithersDom