Naomi for Evening Standard Magazine UK November 28, 2014

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 Naomi Campbell on fighting Ebola and finding happiness in her forties
  Naomi Campbell on fighting Ebola and finding happiness in her forties
 
   Published: 26 November 2014 
 
   Naomi Campbell makes no apologies for arriving more than an hour late  for her interview and photo shoot. She quietly hangs her Fendi coat and  fedora on a full-length mirror in Manhattan’s Pier 59 Studios; she  pulls two phones from her handbag, studies them for a moment, chooses  one and purses her full lips into the mirror before settling into the  hair stylist’s chair. ‘I lost one phone yesterday,’ she says, crossing  her legs and bouncing an oversized Riccardo Tisci sneaker up and down.  ‘I panicked, so now I have two. I’m going to keep one and give the other  one away.’ She’s stunning in the flesh, even without her hair and  make-up done, with cheekbones that could cut glass and flawless, dewy  skin.
   I eye the phones with concern, worried that something I say could  make her angry. But throughout our conversation, each time I expect a  sharp retort, I get a laugh. Campbell’s laughs come from her diaphragm,  deep and strong, and when she chortles, the rest of the room (two  publicists, a make-up artist and a hair stylist sifting through a giant  Ziploc bag filled with wigs) joins in. ‘It’s important to laugh every  day,’ she says. ‘I laugh at myself. I don’t take myself that seriously.  Trust me, I don’t. I can’t.’ In spite of everything I’ve read about her,  all the scandalous tabloid tales of temper tantrums and violent  outbursts, I so want to believe that this centred woman is the real  Naomi Campbell. Because if Naomi Campbell can find her inner Zen, isn’t  there hope for the rest of us?
We all know Campbell’s story, and  the two phones perched on the table only serve as a reminder. Who could  forget that decade where the supermodel was accused no less than ten  times of various acts of violence against assistants, employees, police  officers — anyone within arm’s reach. In 2000 she pleaded guilty to  assaulting her personal assistant with a mobile phone and in 2007 to  assaulting her former housekeeper with a BlackBerry. During her  court-mandated community service she maintained a diary for 
W Magazine,  for which she was snapped turning up to sweep the streets not in an  orange jumpsuit but a silver-sequined Dolce & Gabbana gown.
The  following year she assaulted a pair of police officers at Heathrow,  spitting at them during a dispute over lost luggage. Campbell was  subsequently banned for five years by British Airways. She recently  reached an un-disclosed settlement over a claim from the paparazzo  Gaetano Di Giovanni, who had alleged that in 2009 she hit him with her  handbag and left his face scratched and bruised after he took a photo of  Campbell with her Russian billionaire then-boyfriend Vladimir Doronin.  Campbell has consistently denied the allegation. (Earlier this month,  the British jeweller Laurence Graff purchased an Hermès Birkin bag of  Campbell’s at a charity auction for £110,000; the press speculated  whether it could be the same one.) She and Doronin split last year after  five years together and he was spotted soon after squiring Campbell’s  protégé from her reality TV model competition show 
The Face, the Chinese model Luo Zilin.
Yet  none of this drama fazes Campbell. There’s no trace of her fiery temper  today. Granted, she’s got authority, rejecting three wigs before  finally settling on a tousled ‘middle part’ (wig with a centre parting),  but she’s polite and almost excessive with her pleases and thank-yous.  ‘My mindset is a little bit wiser because of the adding on of the  years,’ she says by way of explanation, the only time she references her  age — 44 — in any way.
I start carefully, observing that she  seems happy. She pauses. ‘I wasn’t always happy. I’m happy now. What has  made me so happy is just accepting life on life’s terms, trying not to  control everything, going with the flow, doing what I want to do. That’s  what’s important.’ Is she having more fun in her forties? This brings  out a naughty smile. ‘I am.’ 
Campbell has been hitting the town in  London and New York: visiting Chiltern Firehouse for photographer Mario  Testino’s OTT Gatsby-themed 60th dressed as a flamenco dancer in a  daring silver gown with a neckline down to her belly button and flowers  in her hair; dining out with Rihanna; she was delightfully silly in a  recent charity skit for a celebrity 
Gogglebox with her  long-serving pal Kate Moss and rock star Noel Gallagher, eating Monster  Munch but not looking like she watches much primetime TV.
     
Naomi's own   ‘Listen,’ she says conspiratorially. ‘I’ve softened a lot over the  years. The people who know me know what I’m about. You can’t please  everyone. You can’t judge a book by its cover. You know my story. I  don’t live in denial about it and that’s it.’
A dedicated fan of  Magnolia Bakery cupcakes (‘I can only buy a small one, because if I buy  the big one, I’ll eat the whole thing in one go’) and banana pudding,  Campbell recently quit sugar after an intense ten-day cleanse. ‘I feel  amazing,’ she says — and, even with my bullsh*t-o-meter turned up high, I  believe her. She’s about to embark on a huge project to raise awareness  about the spread of Ebola (more of which to follow). To my surprise, I  begin to ask Naomi Campbell for advice about how to be more centred.  ‘First and foremost, you have to be happy and have a positive mind,’ she  says. ‘I do yoga and Pilates and sometimes bootcamp. But you can do all  of that and still not be happy. The thought process of doing it is  harder than actually just physically doing it. The mind is so powerful.  I’ve learned that,’ she says. She really does seem at peace, I say, and  she chortles. ‘I am. If I wasn’t, you would know.’
Campbell was the first black model to appear on the cover of 
Time magazine, French
 Vogue and Russian 
Vogue.  She’s walked in the shows of every top designer from Chanel to Versace.  Model scout Beth Boldt discovered Campbell while she was shopping in  Covent Garden aged just 15. She soon had her first assignment — a photo  shoot in Alabama for British 
Elle — and has since graced the covers of more than 500 magazines. She is worth an estimated £30m.
When Campbell and her comrades were on the rise — Kate, Christy,  Cindy... all those girls we knew by just one name — models commanded an  air of mystery. But those days are long gone, with young models such as  Cara Delevingne and Kendall Jenner (Kim Kardashian’s half-sister,  recently signed as the face of Estée Lauder, modelling’s answer to  winning the lottery) documenting the minutiae of their lives on social  media. In its September issue, American 
Vogue dubbed them the  ‘Instagirls’. Moving into her third decade in the business, Campbell  sees her-self as something of an adviser to the new generation: ‘I talk  to Cara all the time. She calls me,’ she says. ‘She’s very level-headed,  actually. Very smart.’
What’s Campbell’s stance on social media?  ‘I Instagram but I don’t give my life away. I believe you have to let  people see certain things,’ she says, adding that she prefers posting  quotes, old pictures and a few select moments, ‘but I don’t show  personal things. I give a little. It’s a fine line.’ She’ll happily take  a selfie now and then — ‘I like taking them… fully dressed’ — but  claims she doesn’t know how to take one from the most flattering angle.  ‘All these years working with photo-graphers and I actually have no idea  how to take a picture!’
December will be crazy for Campbell as  she flies between London, New York and Chicago, where she’s filming an  episode of the Lee Daniels’ (the director behind 
Precious and 
The Butler)  hip-hop TV drama Empire, to be broadcast early next year. Terrence  Howard stars in the family saga about Lucious Lyon, a street thug turned  music mogul, and Campbell plays Camilla, the cougar-style mistress of  Lyon’s son Hakeem. ‘I’m studying and I have a coach I love. It’s been so  therapeutic,’ she says of her acting. ‘You have to dig down deep into  your own stuff and use your own pain and your life, everything that  you’ve been through.’
Campbell is close to her mother Valerie, a  Jamaican-born dancer who moved to South London aged seven, but in  accordance with her mother’s wishes has never met her father, who left  Valerie soon after she became pregnant. Earlier this year they featured  together in a Bruce Weber shoot for 
Vogue set in Brixton  Market. ‘My mum sacrificed a lot for me… I wasn’t spoilt, but I never  went without,’ she’s said of their relationship.
   
She may end up working through much of the holiday season, but is  hoping to make it back to the UK for some fun and relaxation. She’ll do  Christmas at home in London and then head somewhere warm and relaxing.  She’s coy about where exactly. ‘You know what?’ she says, stretching out  her coltish legs. ‘I’m just happy with some time off. I want to chill  and sleep late and watch TV and veg out and be around people I care  about. It’s a time to relax and rejuvenate and do kid things.’ One such  thing is her annual tradition of going to Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland.  ‘I love the rides. Last year I went on the rollercoaster and thought  I’d have a breakdown, but I love the adrenaline rush.’
She pauses.  ‘I know the holidays can be a lonely time for certain people. They feel  pressure to be with someone.’ Despite rumours that she was dating the  actor Michael Fassbender earlier this year, she says she hasn’t dated  anyone seriously since Doronin. ‘You don’t have to do anything. You  don’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations. You need to try not to  be alone. Make your own joy. Not just for Christmas.’
She flicks  her hand when I mention New Year’s resolutions. ‘Every day is a  resolution. I am living and breathing.’ Then, after a beat: ‘How about  we find a cure for Ebola?’
     
She has been gathering up her hand-me- downs for a pop-up shop in  Westfield London’s The Village, where she will sell clothes from her own  and her friends’ (including Kate Moss’) closets, as well as pieces by  well-known designers. Proceeds will go towards her Fashion For Relief  campaign to help stop the spread of Ebola. ‘Finding a cure for Ebola is  in everyone’s personal interest right now. There is no peace of mind  until we know that something can be done.’ And what little bits of  Campbell will we find in the shop? ‘I’ve given so many of my things.  Everything I’ve given is something that I like, but I find it  therapeutic to clean out the closet.’
Campbell has a long history  with Africa, but it hasn’t always been a rosy one. She began doing  charity work with Nelson Mandela in 1993; in 1997 he named her his  ‘honorary granddaughter’. But it was also in South Africa that she  became embroiled in yet another controversy, after unwittingly receiving  a gift of what turned out to be suspected blood diamonds from the  former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, while visiting for a charity  event hosted by Mandela in 1997. She was forced to testify about the  incident in front of Taylor’s war crimes tribunal in 2010. 
Still,  she lights up when we talk about my upcoming trip to Kenya. She even  asks for my number so that we can keep in touch about my plans. ‘I feel  really at peace there,’ she says. ‘You’re completely disconnected from  everything. You have to climb a mountain to make a phone call. When I’m  there I don’t look at the time.’
So what’s next? More acting?  Another reality show? A husband? Kids? ‘I just want to have fun with  what I’m doing,’ she says matter-of-factly. ‘I’m not going to give up on  my day job and my day job hasn’t given up on me. We’ll see. As I said,  you let it go.’
http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/naomi-campbell-no-more-miss-nasty-9885422.html