Twiggy: Rise of weight loss jabs stops me being blamed over 'promoting anorexia'

Her ‘waif’ look was envied by girls worldwide – but now Twiggy is glad weight-loss jabs mean she is no longer blamed for ‘promoting anorexia’.

The original super-skinny model, 75, says: ‘It’s annoying I’ve got this reputation for putting slimness above all else.

‘I’ve even been blamed for promoting anorexia and it’s all such rubbish. The only thing I wonder about with these weight-loss drugs is the long-term side effects – but if they work, they work.

‘At least I don’t feel that I’m in the firing line in the whole skinny debate like I used to be.’

Speaking to You magazine, with today’s paper, she says she does not disapprove of appetite-suppressant drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, injected through pre-filled pens.

She says there is a ‘right weight for everyone’ and adds: ‘I love the fact that these days, especially for women, there’s no “correct look”. I’ve always thought the pressure on women was intrusive and horrible.

‘I eat like a horse, always have done. My dad was a skinny Northern man and my genes are the same. I love food but it goes through me.’ 

Twiggy, real name Lesley Hornby, from Neasden, north London, became an overnight sensation at 16 after a photo of her with a new, cropped hairstyle was shown in a Mayfair hairdresser’s window.

She modelled for only four years – barring a recent partnerships with Marks & Spencer – and became an actress, winning two Golden Globe awards for The Boy Friend in 1971. 

Her story will be told in a documentary by actress Sadie Frost and in a musical by comedian Ben Elton, which will tour Britain next year.

Her ’60s make-up has been adopted by Gen Z (born between 1996 and 2010) and videos of girls recreating her look on TikTok have had 100 million views.

Now a grandmother-of-five, she says: ‘I’ll have to explain Twiggy to the grandkids one day. But it’s a ridiculous story and quite hard to believe, isn’t it? A 16-year-old girl has a haircut and has a photo taken. Then the world goes mad.’

Made a dame in 2019, she says she never gave in to the sex-and-drugs lifestyle which engulfed her peers.

‘No, that was my dad’s influence,’ she says. ‘He was from Bolton. A lovely man. Steady, reliable and always family first. I’m the same.’

She recalls going to music producer Phil Spector’s LA home, where he later shot actress Lana Clarkson dead. At first, he only spoke to her via loudspeakers. Then he appeared with a pistol – and she left when he fired it at the ceiling.

‘Totally crazy – a cup of tea and a biscuit is more my scene,’ she says.