From The Times [Sourced here] Presenter Trinny Woodall, 58, grew up the youngest of six. She rose to fame with Susannah Constantine on the BBC makeover show What Not to Wear and founded her own beauty and skincare brand, Trinny London, in 2017. She has a daughter, Lyla, 18, from her first marriage, and lives in London with her boyfriend, the businessman Charles Saatchi.
Cancel culture is causing women in their fifties to lose their voice. Our children are telling us the language. I find it easier because I work with girls in their twenties and thirties, so I have more awareness. But older women are so scared to say the wrong thing, they don’t say anything.
I don’t do Botox to look young. I do it not to look tired. If I look in the mirror and feel awake and alert, I will be awake and alert. If I look exhausted, I feel it. I want to feel full of energy – that’s all it is.
I’ve been hard up so many times. My dad lost all his money when I was 18, so I couldn’t go to university. When I went into recovery [for cocaine and alcohol addiction] at 28, I started with no money again. After What Not to Wear, I was suddenly in a house with a mortgage I couldn’t afford. I had to sell it to clear my debt.
People still assume Trinny London is funded by my boyfriend. The reality is that I have shed blood, sweat and tears on it during a very difficult time in my life. It used to upset me. You don’t want anybody to make assumptions you know are incorrect. I used to fight them really hard. Now I think: that is your shit, not mine.
I’ve always wanted to be noticed. I am the youngest of six – I had to fight my corner. I can spot an only child because they never had to compete. They believe in themselves. My daughter, Lyla, is an only child, though she would say I’ve got two children – her and Trinny London. But she has unbelievable self-confidence. I think, where do you get that from?
I had nine rounds of IVF and two miscarriages before having Lyla. It was tough. Susannah was having baby after baby really easily and I was losing them. The moment I let go of hope, I fell pregnant via intrauterine insemination. I didn’t believe it. I was so paranoid, I went for a scan every single week.
When my ex-husband [Johnny Elichaoff] died, I had to become a mother and a father. I have to be both tough and empathetic. But it means Lyla and I are very close. It makes us resolve arguments. It means we have to be a bit more grown-up.
I became addicted to cocaine because I had a total lack of confidence. I was very insecure and unappealing. I had bad acne. I finally stopped because I didn’t recognise myself. I was so detached from life; I had no feelings. That is a scary thing.
I sold jewellery to pay for rehab. When I went the first time, my parents had sold a table to Sotheby’s to fund it. It was always referred to as “the table we sold”. I never wanted that situation again. I wanted to pay for it myself.
I had to learn to be good in the boardroom. Whenever a man says to me, “Oh, you’re a CEO who actually runs the company?” I go, “Would you ever ask a man that?” Only 2 per cent of venture-capital money went to female-founded brands last year. It horrifies me.
I am more sensitive now than when we did What Not to Wear. But that is the show television executives would want today. It was a great talking point and it delivered ratings. We had eight million viewers.
