Cindy Crawford's frankest interview ever on sex, kids, marriage, ageing and pole-dancing - Mirror Online
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Cindy Crawford's frankest interview ever on sex, kids, marriage, ageing and pole-dancing
She turned her shapely back on modelling 10 years ago to be a full-time wife and mother. But Cindy Crawford is anything but mumsy.
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She turned her shapely back on modelling 10 years ago to be a full-time wife and mother. But Cindy Crawford is anything but mumsy.
At 44 she still has cheekbones that could slice an onion and honed legs that go on... and on.
And in her most candid interview ever she talks sex, marriage, Richard Gere - and pole-dancing.
The former supermodel explains: "There are no steps to learn with pole-dancing and after having kids it's great to re-tap into that sexuality and sensuality.
"The class is super-dark so you wouldn't even recognise the woman next to you if she was next to you at the supermarket.
"You dance to music differently because you hear it differently. And my husband does not complain."
That lucky husband is Rande Gerber, the club owner she married in 1998. She fell for him after divorcing film star Gere in 1995. They live in Malibu with their children Presley, 11, and Kaia, nine.
Cindy says: "It's the first relationship where I was friends first.
"I recommend that. The other stuff goes up and down but if you actually like the person, it will hold you together.
"We're not people who talk 20 times a day but I need to check in more than Rande does. I'm the woman, the more emotional one.
"He'd be happy to never talk about the relationship again. Rande's philosophy is, 'If everything's good, why talk about it, and if it's bad, why talk about it?'."
So how - after 12 years - do they keep their romance alive? "If you just wait for the moment to strike," she says, "you're going to have some dry spells. Sometimes you have to grease the wheels a little.
"You just need to make it a priority and say tonight is going to be the night. If you're not in the mood, it's easy enough to get into the mood."
As you can see, she still looks terrific - but Cindy's regime is reassuringly down-to-earth.
She says: "I'm not measuring myself to look the same as I did because if I did that would be deeply frustrating at best. I can't cheat any more - I've learned to fake it.
"With chocolate, you eat only dark. I never dieted but I'd go off white food for three days - no pasta, rice, sugar or flour. I'm running around with kids and volunteering at school. I can't be bothered with complicated diets and weight plans.
"I'm becoming a woman of a certain age. Just because you can wear a micro-miniskirt it doesn't mean you should. You don't need to show your midriff either if you're over 40.
"I've tried botox but I'm afraid of it. I don't think injections should be used to change your face. I'm not a fan of fillers at all. If you've gone 35 or 40 years without big lips, I don't think it's time to start plumping them up artificially.
"I won't say 'no' to plastic surgery. But, again, it scares me. If it changes how you look it's a failure and you can't take it back."
For a woman whose looks brought her fame and fortune, Cindy is refreshingly positive about the effects of getting older.
She says: "I have a soft spot about seeing Rande ageing - maybe because I want him to see me through that same lens.
"I've been getting my hair coloured since I was 30 so I don't know how grey I am. But Rande is going grey and I like how he looks. It's very sweet and endearing. I want to show my daughter that it's OK to age. If the kids go for ice-cream, I'll get ice-cream. I don't want Kaia to think being a beautiful woman is about depriving yourself.
"There are things I'd wish weren't part of ageing. But what you gain is much more than you're giving up. I don't think you come into your own until you're 35 or so.
"You have to come to terms with what you're not going to do. I'm not going to speak French, I'm not going to play concert piano.
"But I like the way I am with my family and I'm amazed I'm still thriving in a career I thought far gone from at this age."
Cindy has clearly moved on since her four-year marriage to Gere, which ended in 1995. "My ex-husband was very involved with Tibetan Buddhism and I found it interesting at first but it just wasn't my thing.
"And that's OK. That didn't make me less valid as a person."
Post-Gere, family is all to Cindy. "My son is more like Rande and my daughter's definitely more me. She likes school and she cares. My son is more like my husband. School is something to be tolerated for the PE, break time and his friends."
Cindy has become closer to her own mother Jennifer, 64, who still lives in Illinois where Cindy and younger brother Jeffrey were born. And she is full of admiration for how her mum coped with Jeffrey's death from leukaemia.
"Growing up, I sometimes felt she should have been angry or outraged and she wasn't. She had a son that died. My dad had an affair and they divorced.
"Those were painful things for her but they didn't take away from her light as a person.
"Now I'm a mum myself I've really come to appreciate her outlook on life. I can't imagine the pain of losing a child. He was four when he died. He was sick for two years."
Cindy left Illinois for New York in 1986 as her modelling career took off. Nine years later Forbes magazine ranked her the most highly-paid model in the world. But she admits fame came at a price... and the industry could be overwhelming.
"There were times when I wanted to be skinnier and worked a little too hard to maintain my weight but I was getting validation.
"Playboy was asking me to pose nude. Vogue was putting me on covers. But I was slightly fearful of the world of modelling at times. I avoided parties. I was afraid of drugs and Italian playboys. I preferred to stay at home with a book. I was never a party girl and I'm still not."
And she bristles at some of today's magazine front covers: "You don't see models on magazines any more. You'll see Sarah Jessica Parker and think, 'Oh, it's because her movie's coming out next month'."
Cindy is clued up on the industry and her business empire includes the Meaningful Beauty skin-care range and home decor lines. And she made a fortune from fitness videos and swimsuit calendars. She says: "Some people think if you're famous and you put your name on something it sells automatically.
"It might get people to stop and look. But it has to be as good and probably better than whatever else is out there because people will see right through you. They'll pick it up and touch it and they won't buy it."
But back to modelling, how does Cindy explain her huge success? She says: "I'm all-American. Sexy but not intimidating. Not the kind of woman who's going to steal someone's husband."
Which is just as well... he'd have a pretty tough time resisting.
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