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Numerous sources report that Vogue's April 2023 cover star is 106 years old.

Is Whang Od 106 years old? Is she Vogue's oldest cover star?

thelawnet
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There are conflicting reports of Whang Od's age, and no contemporary evidence has been provided as to her date of birth. She was first attested, as an elderly tattooist, in 2007 when she was said to be 87 years old. Her claimed age was increased in 2017, when she claimed to be 100, entitling her to a payout for Filipino centenarians.

According to The Guardian:

Whang-Od does not have a birth certificate, however, she was issued a postal ID in 2017, which allowed her to access benefits available to centenarians in the Philippines.

These benefits amount to 100,000 PHP for those aged 100 years and over, since 15 February 2017. At the time that was approximately $US2,000.

In the absence of formal documentary evidence, two affidavits from people over 80 is sufficient to qualify for the payout.

Therefore there was a huge incentive to claim to be at least 100. It is unlikely that there are birth records kept in this remote area. She is a member of the Kalinga ethnic group, which has a traditional religion and relatively low rates of Catholicism (which could otherwise provide a baptismal record).

Other claims about elderly workers, such as that of Buster Martin appear to be dubious.

The Travel Trilogy blog reported her age as 95 in 2014 (so 104 in 2023). It cites a 2009 documentary as a source.

This source from October 2015 from Philippine TV's GMA News, claimed she was 97 in October 2015 (so 105 in 2023).

In 2013 she was claimed to be 92, https://magazine.sangbleu.com/2013/06/29/whang-od-92-year-old-tattoo-artist/ So 102 today.

It appears she was popularised by Lars Krutak, and appeared in a documentary in 2009. Krutak claimed in 2009 that she was 89. (so 103). This photograph is from 2007, when he says she was 87. This would represent an age of 103 in 2023, however there seems to be no particular reason to believe that the the age of 87 is accurate either.

Therefore we do not know how old she is, and there is little reason to believe she is 106.

In 2020, Judi Dench, was the oldest person on British Vogue's cover, at the age of 85.

Whang-Od might well be older than 85, but if we assume that photographic evidence of her existence started with Lars Krutak in 2007, there is not firm proof from that photo whether she was older than 69 (which would make her 85 today) or not.

thelawnet
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  • I am getting an error on the Sangbleu link. Just me? – Oddthinking Apr 04 '23 at 06:52
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    Your evidence all points to her being in the range 102-106 - far older than Dench. I removed your speculation that she can't be working and over 100, as an appeal to personal incredulity fallacy. – Oddthinking Apr 04 '23 at 06:56
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    She had no incentive to lie about her age in 2007, when she claimed to be 87, making her 102/103 today. By the time of the introduction of the centenarian payment in 2017 she appears to have been a well known and esteemed figure, and it's not surprising that the addition to her previously claimed age was nodded through in order to qualify her for the payout. – thelawnet Apr 04 '23 at 11:09
  • As far as the question of whether she is older than Judi Dench was goes, then it seems to amount to her own/her family's claims about her age. In the context of human longevity we only accept claims with reliable contemporary evidence, which she clearly lacks. – thelawnet Apr 04 '23 at 11:12
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    As long as you stick to "We can't be sure of her exact age, as it has been unreliably reported. It is likely to be 3 or 4 years shy of 106." I am with you. When you suggest "She couldn't be 100, because that's too old to work" you are going too far. When you suggest she might be younger than 85, you are lacking reliable contemporary evidence. [I am ignoring that you are accepting an elderly movie star's claimed age without citing reliable contemporary evidence, despite a long history of movie stars lying about their ages.] – Oddthinking Apr 04 '23 at 12:27
  • You're assuming without performing a basic search, which shows that in fact she was the subject of a genealogical TV show, and such records are freely available and reliable for the UK https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/who-do-you-think-you-are/dame-judi-dench-1467/ In my opinion it would be absurd to claim that Whang Od's age is likely to be three or four years shy of 106, when this woman basically was unattested until 2007 at which time she stated her age, but there is no reason to suppose that age was accurate – thelawnet Apr 04 '23 at 14:02
  • Please add that information in, including quoting where Judy Dench's birth certificate is cited (I don't see it..) I am confused whether you think Whang Od was or wasn't right in 2007; You say no reason to suppose accurate and also she had no reason to lie. To be fair, an octogenarian relative of mine had no reason to lie either, but recently she did the sums and realised she was a year older that she had thought] Ultimately, I agree with you that we can't be sure about her age, but suggesting she might be younger than Dench is not reasonable. – Oddthinking Apr 04 '23 at 14:15
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    Dench's birth record is available here: https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?r=170595017:6552&d=bmd_1680086578 I am not suggesting that she was lying in 2007, but rather that she might not have any real idea how old she was. My late Indonesian mother-in-law had two different birth dates 5 years apart on two different documents, and for an elderly woman of uncertain/limited/no educational background asked in 2007 about her age, there's no reason to believe it was accurate. The point of course is that we **know** how old Dench is, but we don't **know** how old this woman is – thelawnet Apr 04 '23 at 14:57