Marie Helvin: The model spills the beans on her past
14th November 2009
At 57, Marie Helvin - once described as 'the most beautiful woman in the world' - is as stunning as ever as the body of lingerie label Agent Provocateur's new collection. So what's her secret? No husband, no family, no mortgage and a devilish sense of humour, she confides to Jane Gordon.
When lingerie company Agent Provocateur asked Marie Helvin to be the face and body of their new demi-couture collection, she agreed on one condition: ‘I said to the photographer, “I have to do it before I turn 57.”
He said, “What difference does it make?” and I said, “It just does.” So we shot it in July, one month before my 57th birthday,’ she says with one of the long, dirty laughs that punctuate our conversation. In truth, of course – much as she might deny it – the model often cited in the 1970s as ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’ doesn’t look like your average 57-year-old. Although telling her this prompts both a defence of her youthful appearance and an attack on the way in which women become ‘invisible’ after 45.
‘I have no children. I have time to look after my skin, my body. I don’t smoke. I don’t have Botox. Anyway, who knows what a woman of 57 really looks like? How many women of my age do you see in fashion or cosmetics ads – even those that are being marketed to women over 45? Twiggy perhaps, but who else?’
We meet for a late lunch that she has pre-ordered – a modest salad embellished with walnuts and feta cheese, a little basket of fries (which she declares are ‘the best in London’) and a bottle of ice-cold chablis – in a restaurant close to the Chelsea home she rents.
Generous to a fault (she has never been interested in money), and deliciously indiscreet, she is amused to find herself the star of a risqué lingerie campaign just three years before she is due to collect her bus pass. ‘I’m used to working on my own as a model, but in this campaign I was faced with young, beautiful models. Their bodies are amazing! That was the only bit that was difficult for me.’
‘Between real lovers, I have my fantasy lovers. Last year it was Clive Owen. I am over him now’
She has no regrets about not being more sensible over her finances during a stellar career spanning the past four decades. Independent, she dismisses women who ‘live off’ relationships with men (her divorce settlement from photographer David Bailey in 1985 was just £100,000).
‘I was shocked,’ she says, ‘when, a couple of years ago, a man I was seeing gave me a diamond ring. It was the first time that had happened to me. When I was married to Bailey, I was a hippie chick; I wasn’t interested in jewellery. I remember Jerry Hall and Tina Chow used to say to me “You’re crazy. Get as much jewellery as you can and stash it.” The amount of jewellery Jerry has must fill vaults.’
These days Marie and Jerry – who were close friends as young models and during their marriages – are ‘friendly’ but not friends. Asked whom she remains close to from her past, she replies instantly ‘only Bailey’.
Her ex-husband – who married his current wife Catherine shortly after his divorce from Marie – calls her ‘all the time’ and they chat for ‘hours’. Does she get on with Catherine, who ironically was the face of Agent Provocateur two years ago?
‘I have the utmost respect and affection for Catherine. She has made Bailey very happy and given him three amazing children. He needed a family but I didn’t realise it. I was so shocked when we divorced and he married her, and one child after another arrived…’
Marie has never made a secret of her disinterest in children (she is visibly irritated by the presence of several babies in the restaurant during our meal). There is something rather endearing about her honesty on this subject, even if it does sometimes get her into trouble. ‘I can’t stand small babies. I would rather give birth to a kitten or a colt…a little pony,’ she says wistfully.
In many ways, Marie remains the hippie chick she was in the 70s. She doesn’t own a property and says that she could walk away tomorrow with ‘just one suitcase’ because she loves to be ‘free’. She has never remarried, although she was once engaged to Mark Shand, brother of the Duchess of Cornwall.
‘I was in love with him but I didn’t want to marry him. We spent Christmases with Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles. I loved Camilla – she was such fun – and her children, although I used to look at Tom and think, “I hope you get better looking, you’re a very unattractive child.” And look – he’s so handsome now! You know, even then, when she was happily married to Andrew, I was aware that something was going on with her and Charles. Maybe just a friendship…’
It’s difficult to keep up with the witty, slightly wicked Marie. Our conversation spins from Prince Charles (whom she admires) to Eric Clapton (‘a very unpleasant man’) and on through a startling cast of ex lovers and friends (Jack Nicholson and Peter Gabriel among them).
Marie says that one of her problems when she was young was that she ‘had no voice’ but now that she is older ‘you cannot shut me up’. She certainly talks more than she eats – I have demolished most of the ‘best fries in London’, she has nibbled at just two.
‘I am well trained. The only reason I am this slim is that I have to fit into the clothes. I have been on a diet for my entire life’
‘I’m well trained. The only reason I am this slim is that I have to fit into the clothes. The samples are size 8, and I am naturally a size 10 to 12. I have been on a diet for my entire life,’ she shrugs.
Funny and irreverent, she is as critical of herself as she is of other people. She loves ‘grown-up men’ (the only man she has ever been out with who is younger is Marco Pierre White) but has no interest in living with anyone apart from her two cats. ‘To be honest, the reason I have my cats is to force myself to think about something other than myself,’ she chuckles at one point.
She describes herself as a very ‘sexual’ person, although she insists she is not promiscuous (she was faithful to Bailey, despite his many infidelities). She has, she says, ‘genuinely’ loved all the men she has ever been with, but has always been wary of what she calls ‘emotional intimacy’, admitting that perhaps she avoids this to protect herself from heartbreak.
‘I remember one of my boyfriends, Neil Pearson, said to me, “You have to allow yourself to be hurt in order to really feel.” I thought “What a load of s***!” He didn’t last long,’ she laughs.
There is a man in her life right now, but it is not serious, she says. Then there is Viggo Mortensen: ‘Between the real lovers I have my fantasy lovers. Right now it is Viggo, but last year it was Clive Owen. I am over him now. Before that it was Gabriel Byrne…’
Marie laughs when I ask her about her ambitions (‘At 57?’), but admits that she would like to become the face of a fashion brand that catered for ‘grown-up women’ as long as she could have some input in the design. She has plans, too, for a series of health, fitness and wellbeing books for women over 45. But she has no interest in modelling for more than a few more years.
‘I don’t see myself as the next Carmen Dell’Orefice. I’d rather be fat and happy, sitting on a beach in Hawaii eating pizza. That’s my dream – to eat without feeling, “Oh no, I have a job tomorrow,”’ she says, glancing covetously at the now-cold ‘best fries in London’.
The Agent Provocateur Soirée collection launches this weekend and will be sold at Harrods and Selfridges, London, and Agent Provocateur, Manchester. Tel: 0844 4995202, agentprovocateur.com.
Marie Helvin will be selling some of her clothes from the 1970s and 80s – including designs by Ossie Clark, Azzedine Alaïa and Yves Saint Laurent – on 8 December through Kerry Taylor Auctions. For more information, visit kerrytaylorauctions.com.
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