Super model Naomi Campbell has revealed that she looks up to former South African president Nelson Mandela for inspiration when times get tough for her.
The British beauty has formed a close bond with Mandela since their meeting in early 1990s and he fondly refers to her as his "honorary granddaughter".
She says his fight for freedom during South Africa's apartheid gives her the strength to overcome her troubles, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
"I have to pinch myself sometimes because who in the world doesn't want to know Nelson Mandela? But I've been extremely blessed to have been in his presence many times...He's someone who I often think about when things get tough and life isn't full of roses. Nothing can be as hard as what he went through," she said.
"Now, I don't have his constitution for forgiving. I hope one day to acquire that. But I don't hold grudges either. When things happen, I just kind of want to move away from them for a while and hope that things will come back in a more positive light," she said.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell has sparked wedding rumours after booking a month long "honeymoon" with boyfriend, Russian billionaire Vladislav Doronin.
The 39-year-old model has booked a luxury holiday which will cost a whopping 1 million pounds and she is calling it a honeymoon, reported Sun online.
"The honeymoon planned to end just before Christmas, is costing close to 1 million pounds because they will only use private jets and stay at the best hotels," said a source close to the couple.
Rumours, that the English supermodel will be marrying Doronin, known as Russia's Donald Trump, have been doing the rounds ever since she moved to Russia earlier this year to set up house with the business tycoon.
The couple first met at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and attended the star-studded A-List birthday dinner held for the legendary South African leader Nelson Mandela. Soon after, the pair became inseparable, famously vacationing on Vladislav Doronin’s yacht off St Tropez in the South of France last summer in clear view of the paparazzi.
Once an anti-fur activist, supermodel Naomi Campbell is set to ignite a debate after posing naked - with just a Russian sable fur.
The 39-year-old catwalk queen has reportedly posed in a coat made from Russian sable in an advert for a luxury New York furrier Dennis Basso, reports the Daily Express.
She had once famously declared she would rather go naked than wear fur, however, Campbell backtracked when PETA targeted designers.
"I felt that they went too far and I thought, I didn't want to be a part of this campaign any more," she said at the time.
Campbell has been branded a hypocrite by Sir Paul McCartney's ex-wife Heather Mills, 41. But Basso said: "Women who want something beautiful are only interested in the final product."
Fiery supermodel Naomi Campbell has attacked the fashion industry and glossy magazines for sidelining “black beauty” in favour of fair-skinned models. The 37-year-old said even she found it harder to get onto the coveted front cover as editors of magazines like Vogue consistently chose less prominent white models for news stand impact.And she has vowed to set up her own modelling agency in her beloved Kenya in an attempt to redress the balance. “Black models are being sidelined by the major modelling agencies,” she told local journalists at a press conference in the beach resort of Malindi, Kenya, where she is on holiday.“It is a pity that people don’t appreciate black beauty”. She added: “I even get a raw deal from my own country. For example, I hardly come on the front pages of London’s Vogue magazine. "Only white models, some of whom are not as prominent as I am, are put on the front pages” Campbell, notorious for her temper tantrums and who has earned a lucrative living as one of the world’s most famous black models, was speaking at the luxury hotel owned by former boyfriend Italian billionaire Flavio Briatore, the head of the Renault Formula One team.
A regular visitor to Malindi, she is now expected to fly to Nairobi to scout for talents among modelling agencies. “I don’t want to quit modelling until I find that black models get equal prominence and recognition by the world media and information instruments” she added. Born in London, and a model since she was just 15, Campbell first appeared on the cover of Vogue aged 17 in 1987. She last made the cover five years ago. Several African models have done phenomenally well.
These include Alek Wek, from southern Sudan, Waris Dirie from Somalia and Iman, also from Somalia and the supermodel wife of singer David Bowie. But, even the model agency Storm acknowledged she may have a point. “There is a growing ethnic diversity, but it’s not happening quite as fast as was predicted,” said Storm director Simon Chambers. “None the less we do expect the very best black boys and girls in the industry to reach the highest echelons of modelling - like Naomi and Alek have done”.Miss Campbell, who is with the IMG agency, said she had now begun contacting scouts to help set up an agency that would find and train women to become models. “I believe there are pretty girls from your lovely country who can grace the international catwalk and the front pages of fashion magazines with proper strategies,” she told the Kenyan press.A spokesman for Vogue said they had no comment.
