Carrie Bickmore, 40, dons a bikini for poolside photo shoot in Stellar magazine

It’s The Project host Carrie Bickmore as you’ve never seen her before - she admits she’s trying to be “a bit more carefree” at 40.

Carrie Bickmore strips down to her swimmers as this weekend’s Stellar Magazine cover star.

The Project star and mum-of-three, who turned 40 in early December, told the publication she’s been trying to be “a bit more carefree” lately, having recently chopped her hair and gotten her first tattoo.

Judging by the stunning snaps, it seems to be working for the Channel 10 star.

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Carrie Bickmore dons a bikini on the cover of Stellar magazine this weekend. Picture: Supplied.

The 40-year-old mum-of-three is glowing in the stunning pool pics. Picture: Supplied.

“I don’t throw caution to the wind very often and I’d like to do that a bit more,” she said.

The Gold Logie winner, who lost her husband Greg Lange after a decade-long battle with brain cancer in 2010, said she’s approaching life in her 40s with a new attitude.

“In my 20s, at the time when everyone around me was pretty carefree, I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders,” she told Stellar.

“I grew up quicker than most people do. In my 30s I already had a child then, much later, I went on to have two more. Obviously, with building my career and family life, I think of all of my 30s as exhaustion. Now I just need to take a few more risks, be a bit more carefree and see where life takes me.”

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Carrie had a tiny tribute to her family tattooed on her ankle in November. Picture: Instagram.

She joked that her mother Jennie wondered whether she was having a midlife crisis.

“She asked me how I was feeling about coming up to 40. I said, ‘I’m not having a midlife crisis!’” Bickmore recalled with a laugh.

“I’d just been in lockdown so long I was happy to be released so I could do some stuff.”

Bickmore, who is now married to producer Chris Walker, 39, after meeting on The Project, has three children: Oliver, 13, Evie, 5, and Adelaide, 2.

She told Stellar life in her bustling household is not without its challenges.

“It’s about survival at the moment,” she confessed.

“Addie has a huge amount of words but she’s an absolute shocker when it comes to sleep. We’ve joked that we may need to move a bed into her room permanently. At the moment, we’re sleeping on cushions on the floor and it’s not helping any of our osteo bills.”

She added: “Still, by your third, you know it will pass.”

Speaking of her relationship with Walker, the beloved television personality said: “He’s such a good sounding board, always has great advice and is always encouraging. I know he has my back, which is a great feeling.”

Read the full interview with Carrie Bickmore in the current issue of Stellar, available in the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Herald Sun, out Sunday December 20.