ENDURING STYLE

Supermodel Yasmin Le Bon turned 60 last year and is feeling better than ever. But, she tells us in this candid interview, her world has not been perfect...

- INTERVIEW: MIRANDA THOMPSON

You might think Yasmin Le Bon has it all. Mother to three beautiful women, grandmother of four boys and this year, the former 1980s supermodel, who turned 60 last October – will mark 40 years of marriage to her beloved husband, Duran Duran star Simon.

But even with what she describes as an “unbelievably lucky life” she has faced difficult challenges.

“I feel very blessed in life; I've been unbelievably lucky,” she tells us in this exclusive interview. “But you know my world – like everyone’s – is not perfect and doesn’t smell of roses all the time. And I think it can be really difficult.”

As she speaks to HELLO! from the library of her family home in south-west London, it’s clear that Yasmin – who is funny, forthright and a joy to talk to – is constantly counting her blessings.

Yet the legacy of her modelling days has certainly taken its toll. For the very profession that brought her fame led to her suffering crippling back pain for many years.

“You don’t do what I've done for a living and not pay the price somewhere down the line,” she says. “When I was working a lot in the Eighties, I used to spend all day long doing balletic leaps across a set, like Zebedee in stiletto high heels on concrete. Now nobody does that because that’s bonkers, but I did.

“I've had times in my life where it has become really, very depressing when I couldn’t walk without pain, couldn't do anything and it’s really hard,” she continues.

“I feel for anybody who's had back pain or is going through it. I think it’s a mental thing as well, getting through the fact that maybe you're going to have to live with a certain amount of pain. You can do that; you just have to change the way you do everything.”