The Most Beautiful Woman in The World, Red magazine

THE MOST
BEAUTIFUL
WOMAN
IN THE
WORLD
SHE ALWAYS WAS THE SUPER WITH A SOFTER SIDE,
AND WITH HER EVERY MOTHER COUNTS INITIATIVE,
CHRISTY TURLINGTON BURNS HAS PROVED HERSELF A POWERFUL
ADVOCATE OF WOMEN. HERE, SHE TALKS TO RUBY WARRINGTON
ABOUT ACTIVISM, HER MARATHON ADDICTION AND WHY
LAUGHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SEX
Photographs ARTHUR ELGORT Styling NICOLA ROSE
152 REDONLINE.CO.UK MAY 2015
All hail Christy:
mother, activist,
marathon addict
Poly- and cotton-mix
T-shirt, around £24,
Every Mother Counts.
Denim jeans, £220,
J Brand. 18ct rose gold
and diamond earrings,
£1,660; 18ct rose gold
and diamond ring,
£1,470, all Pomellato »
‘I’M STILL
NOT DONE
EXPERIMENTING
WITH WHO
I
n conversation with Christy
Turlington Burns, what strikes
me immediately is how well
I know her features. Every
angle, every expression; the
intelligent brown eyes, sensual
mouth and elegant, aquiline
nose. With 30 years at the
forefront of the modelling
industry under her belt,
Turlington Burns’ face has
been a constant in the lives of
women everywhere. She has
graced the cover of over 500
magazines and fronted countless campaigns, but today we
are here, in her downtown New York office (in a decidedly
nondescript building), to talk about her most impactful role
in the lives of women to date – that of childbirth activist.
It is five years since Turlington Burns, 46, founded
Every Mother Counts, an organisation dedicated to raising
awareness about issues women face in pregnancy and
154 REDONLINE.CO.UK MAY 2015
I AM’
childbirth, some of the statistics around which are
truly shocking. Pregnancy is the leading cause of
death in women aged 15 to 19 in the developing world,
and up to 98% of these deaths are preventable (through
increased medical supplies, education and training of
birth attendants, and improved transport to healthcare
services). ‘I experienced complications myself with
my daughter, Grace, and I guess my own experience
of childbirth was the epiphany,’ she says.
It’s lunchtime on a frostbitten Wednesday and the
takeout soup Turlington Burns has grabbed to fuel her
between meetings is going cold as she talks about the
cause, her passion for her subject palpable.
‘What I realised was actually how lucky I had been,’ she
admits. ‘So many women don’t even get to choose when
they become pregnant. They don’t get to choose how many
children they have. They don’t get to choose whether they
will be medicated, or have a natural birth. This is just how
it is, and it’s not an ideal way to bring life into the world.’
Her efforts with the foundation focus on highlighting these
issues. ‘If I have a goal, it’s for as many people as possible to
be aware that this is an everywoman issue. For example,
it’s shocking, but the United States is actually one of eight
countries around the world where maternal death rates are on
the rise. So this is not just a problem in the developing world.’
As she talks, I take in Turlington Burns’ appearance:
her soft brown hair is scraped into a ponytail; her face,
fine lines and full range of expression very much intact,
completely devoid of make-up. She’s wearing a simple
cotton knit, a pair of Acne jeans and sheepskin-lined
boots, which she later tells me were a Christmas gift
from her husband, the actor-director Ed Burns.
With New York Fashion Week in full swing the
week we meet, I was half expecting a designer-clad
glamazon, but the role of busy working mother seems
to suit her better, and anyway she says the term
‘supermodel’ has never sat well with her.
‘THE SUPERMODEL THING… I FEEL LIKE PEOPLE
ARE NOSTALGIC ABOUT IT FOR WHATEVER
REASONS, BUT I DON’T LOVE IT,’ she confesses. ‘It’s
weird to be part of something that’s considered to be such
a phenomenon, but which I have very little feeling for.’ She
still sees some of the other original ‘supers’, though – in
fact, she had dinner with Cindy Crawford a few weeks ago.
‘Cindy’s a couple of years older than
me, so I always really looked up to her.
She always had such a good sense of
what she wanted out of modelling as
a career. I still see her as a great person
to ask if I ever need advice.’ She smiles.
‘I guess it’s a bit like being in a band
that split up. Except we’re probably
more friendly with each other than that.’
Born in Walnut Creek, a small town on
the outskirts of San Francisco, California,
Turlington Burns was ‘discovered’ riding
a horse in Miami where her father was
working as a training captain for the now-defunct airline
Pan Am. She was just 14 when her career took off. It’s
not a surprise to learn that rather than her fellow models,
the personalities she gravitated towards were often the
hair and make-up people: ‘They were always older. It
felt like there was more security within those groups.’
Her career happened ‘very naturally and easily’, she
says. ‘I didn’t have any nightmarish incidents, thankfully,
but I got bored quickly. The appeal was the travelling, and
the people I got to work with, but it was always a matter
of time until I could do something else.’ She kept waiting
for things to slow down; they never did. ‘So I realised
I had to make it happen,’ she says of her decision to
‘quit’ modelling and pursue a liberal arts degree in 1994,
just as her notoriety on the catwalks reached its peak.
‘I always had a lot of interests, and school allowed
me to explore those. Trying on different careers since,
that had nothing to do with how I looked, helped me
become more confident with who I was. And I’m still
not done experimenting with who I am.’
In previous incarnations, Turlington Burns has written
a book, Living Yoga, and launched a line of yoga clothing,
and before Every Mother Counts she became an advocate
for maternal health, working with international
humanitarian organisation CARE. Focusing on this issue
full time with her own foundation, meanwhile, feels like
her true life purpose. ‘The universe opens up and lets
you know when you’re doing the right thing, and I’ve
never felt that as clearly as I have with this,’ she says.
And if she remains grateful for the light relief in the
occasional modelling jobs she still chooses to do, not
to mention the financial security of her long-standing
contracts with Calvin Klein and Maybelline, she tends
to avoid fashion week like the plague. What doesn’t she
like about it? ‘I don’t like anything about it! I never did.
Now I feel like I have no reason to be involved, so for
me it just creates a nuisance getting around the city.’
Just this morning, she admits, ‘I was walking home
from the gym and there was a crowd of paparazzi outside
a new show venue that’s opened near my house. I was
like, nooo, not in my neighbourhood! It was awful!’
Despite this, she clearly has a deep love affair with New
York, where she moved in 1987 to pursue her modelling
career – ‘growing up in a suburb, as soon as I came here
I said, this is it, this is me.’ Two children
later, the love persists. Turlington
Burns’ daughter, Grace, is now 11; her
son, Finn, just nine. ‘I actually feel like
it’s the easiest place to bring up the
kids!’ she laughs. ‘There’s so much
stimulation here that just walking
around the block can be magical when
you have kids. A taxi, a subway ride.
Sure, it would be nice if there was more
space for them to run and play at school,
but other than that…’ It helps that the
family also has a place on Long Island,
‘which I realise is very fortunate. Sometimes we’ll just
go for the day, because my daughter rides’.
I always really
looked up to Cindy
Crawford… I still
see her as a great
person to ask if
I ever need advice
DAILY LIFE IN THE TURLINGTON BURNS HOUSEHOLD,
A LARGE LOFT SPACE IN TRIBECA, SOUNDS MORE
FAMILIAR THAN YOU MIGHT EXPECT. ‘None of us are
very early risers, so we tend to run out the door.’ The kids are
at different schools now, so, she says, ‘It’s a case of divide
and conquer. Ed was shooting a documentary for the past
six months, which meant I was mostly doing the school
run. But then I might get busy. It’s all part of the balance.’
She and Burns have been together for 15 years, and are
equally hands-on as parents. ‘I was quoted recently saying
the secret to a happy marriage is separate bathrooms,’ she
deadpans. ‘But I also happened to find the right person
who was also ready to be a parent and took it really
seriously, and who has truly been a partner in every
aspect of it. It’s so nice to know you’re not doing it alone.’
What else keeps them together? ‘I think mutual respect.
We’re also both very normal people. We take pride in »
MAY 2015 REDONLINE.CO.UK 155
Satin and acrylic
dress, £2,150, Preen by
Thornton Bregazzi.
Earrings, as before.
18ct rose gold necklace,
£5,585; 18ct rose gold
and diamond necklace,
£3,245, both Pomellato »
Satin jumpsuit,
£1,065, Maison
Martin Margiela
at Net-A-Porter.
Earrings, as before
156 REDONLINE.CO.UK MAY 2015
IF NOT EXACTLY A ‘DATE NIGHT’ KIND
OF COUPLE, Turlington Burns says,
IF YOU CAN STILL
LAUGH TOGETHER
‘It also helps that ‘we laugh a lot! I heard
somebody say recently that while the sex
might go eventually as a couple, if you can
still laugh together that’s the important thing.
I feel like we definitely have that. I can make
fun of him and he can make fun of me’.
All of which is not to say they haven’t had their
ups and downs as a couple, and Turlington Burns reveals
that becoming parents was the ultimate test. ‘We did all
the early baby stuff ourselves; we never had baby nurses
or anything like that. And if you’re a person who’s used to
having your freedom, you do get resentful. But when you
get to a point where you can laugh about it, you’re like,
“We’ve been through the trenches together.” So that’s
also the stuff that can make your relationship strong.’
When it comes to their parenting style, ‘Eddie’s
more cautious, so I get to be the laid-back one. I’m
not a big disciplinarian. I really think of my kids as
my equals and my teachers. Not that I can’t wait to
have a glass of wine with my daughter, I don’t want
to be that kind of friend to her. But I want her to
feel like she can talk to me, and trust me.’
Having experienced the hypercritical nature of the
fashion industry first-hand, what message would she
like to pass on to Grace about body image? ‘I want
her to feel strong, able, fit, and be forgiving of herself,’
she says – which sounds like the way Turlington Burns
feels about her own physicality. Currently the global
ambassador for ingestible skincare brand Imedeen, she
says she likes the company because they encourage the
idea of anti-ageing as part of a holistic, healthy lifestyle.
Describing herself as ‘no fuss, no muss’ when it comes
to her regime, she says, ‘I’ve always had dry skin, and
it only gets drier as you get older. I’m like, “As much
oil and cream and moisture as possible!”’
She starred in a Calvin Klein lingerie campaign in
2013, aged 44, but says that even after two kids, ‘I actually
feel stronger and healthier than ever. Giving birth was
probably the most empowering thing I’ve ever done
physically. I was like, now I can do anything. I can run
a marathon… I can run three!’ In fact, she’s already
signed up to run her fourth – the London Marathon, in
April – as part of an Every Mother Counts campaign to
highlight the distance from proper care that prevents so
many women from having a healthy birthing experience.
‘If it wasn’t for the organisation I probably never would
have done it,’ she says, but has found that the long training
158 REDONLINE.CO.UK MAY 2015
THAT’S THE
IMPORTANT
THING’
runs ‘are one of the few times I have complete solitude,
and I really crave that sometimes’.
She says committing to the second one was easy
enough: ‘I thought, I have two kids, I have two marathons
in me.’ But then she did another. Turlington Burns wonders
aloud if it was for her third child – the one she ended up
not having. ‘I wanted a third one for a while, but Eddie
was like, “Let’s just spend more time with the ones we
have,”’ she admits. Perhaps her desire came because she
is also one of three. She is clearly devoted to both her
sisters and her own mother, now 75, who she calls ‘a great
example of how to age gracefully’, adding, ‘She’s definitely
been a big influence in terms of the choices I’ve made.’
Which brings us back to choice – the choices around
becoming a mother she hopes all women will be in a position
to make one day. For now, she says, ‘I think the most
important thing is for women to see the sisterhood in
motherhood. Sisterhood in being women, actually. It’s really
the capacity to give birth that unites us, more than the
experience itself. It’s about being there for each other.’ e
EVERY MOTHER COUNTS
Every year, 287,000
women die due to
complications in pregnancy
and childbirth. Every
Mother Counts aims to
raise awareness and make
childbirth safe for every
mother. The non-profit
organisation works to
improve maternal health,
provide medical supplies
and train health workers;
everymothercounts.org.
Hair Jimmy Paul for Bumble and Bumble. Make-up Moyra Mullholland at Bryan Bantry Agency. Nails Ana-Maria
at ABTP.com. Hairstylist’s assistant Lucas Wilson. Stylist’s assistants Chloe Forde and Pauline Lavenant. For stockist
details, see the Directory. Additional photographs Getty Images, Rex Features, Splash, Advertising Archives
being team players, and in people liking us,
but not just to be liked. Ed takes his work
seriously but can also have a good time,
and I feel the same way.’
‘WHILE THE SEX
MIGHT GO
AS A COUPLE,
Silk dress, £1,490,
Fendi. Necklaces,
as before. Rings,
from left: 18ct
rose gold and
diamond, £1,470;
18ct rose gold
and diamond,
£1,000, both
Pomellato
For Christy
Turlington Burns’
life in pictures, visit
REDONLINE.CO.UK
FROM TOP: Modelling for
Calvin Klein in the 1990s;
Linda, Cindy, Naomi and
Christy – the original supers
RIGHT: With Red shoot
photographer Arthur Elgort
FROM LEFT:
With husband Ed
Burns; Turlington
Burns has run three
marathons; on the
catwalk in 1993