By Jill Foster
Last updated at 12:44 AM on 26th November 2011
As one of the very first women ever to grace Page 3, model Jilly Johnson has posed in various states of undress more times than she can remember.
Advertising billboards, glossy magazines, newspapers, television — she once even stood in the window of Janet Reger’s Bond Street store and modelled the lingerie queen’s silky scanties to the delight of (mostly male) passers-by.
That was more than three decades ago. Today, she is fast approaching 60 — an age when most women are happier slipping into bedsocks than bustiers.
Fabulous then and fabulous now: Jilly Johnson is as trim today as she was as a young model. Now a grandmother to three and a step-grandmother to seven, she will admit to being a size 10 and weighing 9 st 2lb
Jilly's measurements - which for the record used to be 34B-22-34 - are now off limits
So when, six months ago, Jilly was asked to model again for Janet Reger, she did what most women would do in her position. She panicked.
‘As soon as I’d discussed it with my husband and he’d agreed that I should go for it, I thought: “Oh My God, what am I doing?”?’ she says.
‘I called my personal trainer who normally visits once a week and booked him to come for an hour three times a week instead.
‘I couldn’t sleep a wink the night before. I felt so nervous, so vulnerable. These weren’t emotions I’d ever experienced before when modelling. I did question why, at my age, I was putting myself through this.’
She needn’t have lost any sleep. As these stunning pictures prove, the hard work clearly paid off.
With luminous and line-free skin, she has a body that wouldn’t look out of place in the professionals’ dressing room of Strictly Come Dancing.
Yet twice-married Jilly, who is now an author and actress, says that time has indeed caught up with her.
Now a grandmother to three and a step-grandmother to seven, she will admit to being a size 10 and weighing a trim 9?st 2?lb. But her measurements — which for the record used to be 34B-22-34 — are now off limits.
Six months ago, Jilly was asked to model again for Janet Reger. 'My biggest beauty secret is exfoliation. I do it all the time, but don't bother with expensive scrubs,' she said
‘Oh, I’m not even going there, because it’s far too depressing when I get to my middle bit,’ she says.
‘Ageing is so cruel. Sometimes when I’m crossing the road I spot a reflection of this blonde lady in the shop window and I don’t even recognise her. But it’s me.
‘As we get older there are certain things that leave us lacking in confidence. No longer do we have taut, concave tummies. I’ve got a bit of a jelly-belly, but I don’t know of a woman at my age who doesn’t, so I have to comfort myself with that.
‘Some days I think: “You’re not so bad for an old bird. You scrub up pretty well.” But at other times I’m fretting about my jowls, boobs, and bottom and the fact they’re all heading south.’
Once nicknamed ‘The Body’, Jilly was one of the most recognisable models in Britain during the Seventies and Eighties.
Born in 1953 in Australia, she moved to Hertfordshire (where she still lives) with her parents and brother when she was eight, and was all set to head for drama school when she was persuaded to try out for a modelling assignment. As the final shots were taken, Jilly — as a joke — took off her top.
The resulting pictures were splashed over a downmarket tabloid the next day. She was 16.
‘My parents called me rebel without a clue,’ she laughs. ‘I was so headstrong, I did whatever I liked. But I don’t regret what I did. It was an incredible launch pad for my modelling career and I had so much fun.
‘It was first-class flights, five-star hotels, it was all so crazy that at one point I had to ring down to reception to ask what country I was in.’
'My parents called me rebel without a clue. I was so headstrong,' said Jilly (pictured above in 1978)
At 19, she married businessman Brian Johnson ‘far too young’ and the couple had a daughter Lucy.
But the marriage ended after three years. After that, she admits she was often to be seen on the arm of various rock stars and men in the music industry.
Following a short-lived pop career with fellow model Nina Carter in the band Blonde on Blonde, Jilly met and married textile manufacturer Ashley Brodin, 66, and gave up modelling ten years ago to concentrate on writing, acting and looking after her grandchildren.
It was a chance meeting with Janet Reger’s daughter, Aliza, six months ago that led to this age-defying shoot.
‘I was Janet’s very first signing back in the Seventies but had lost touch with her and in 2005 heard the very sad news that she had died,’ she says.
‘A few months ago, I caught up with Aliza, who now designs for Debenhams, and we got talking about how so much advertising is youth-obsessed.
‘Aliza had a brainwave and said to me: “You were our very first model, why don’t you be our current one?” At first I laughed. I hadn’t modelled for more than a decade and really didn’t think I’d be in shape.
‘Then I learned that the photographer would be Brian Aris — who took my very first professional modelling shots nearly 40 years ago — and I decided to go for it. The location would be my house where, again, I’d feel more comfortable.’
In the weeks leading up to the shoot, Jilly threw herself into the kind of beauty and exercise regime that most of us can only maintain in the 24 hours before we hit a beach.
‘I don’t want anyone who sees these photographs to think that this is me naturally without lots of hard work, fake tan, make-up, lighting and a tiny bit of airbrushing,’ she says.
‘I did ask them to go light on the airbrushing though, because I wanted to keep it as realistic as possible.’
‘A lot of this is down to exercise and I hate exercise. I’m no good at it and each morning when my trainer rang the doorbell I’d screech abuse at him, because I didn’t want to do it.
‘I love my food — French brie, red wine, crusty bread — and I can never diet, so I knew that if I didn’t exercise, it would show. On the day of the shoot, I didn’t throw my clothes off like I used to.
'With every outfit I put on, I was trying to drape the scarf and silk negligee over my wobbly bits and Brian kept saying: “Leave it alone, you look fine!” but I wasn’t sure.
‘I was sucking in my stomach so much that I almost fainted.’
Yet as hard as she works to stay in shape, she has also had a little extra help along the way to maintain her youthful looks.
‘I’ve had Botox for donkey’s years,’ she says.
‘In the past I’ve overdone it and had that awful frozen look so many women get nowadays that means you can’t laugh with your eyes. The rest of your face moves but your eyes remain fixed — it’s not a good look.
‘Now, the only place I have it done is between my eyebrows, because I don’t want it to look too obvious. It’s not a secret and I’m not frightened to admit to it.’
'It was first-class flights, five-star hotels, it was all so crazy that at one point I had to ring down to reception to ask what country I was in,' said Jilly
What about more surgical procedures, though. Has she had a boob job, I wonder? She pauses, bites her lips, then decides she won’t go into specifics.
‘I’m not one to be usually coy about these things, but I don’t want to say anything because it will haunt me,’ she says.
‘I’m not denying it — because I don’t want to be untruthful — but if I say I’ve had something done it will follow me around for ever. All I will say is I don’t know of anyone in the Seventies who didn’t have a boob job.’
I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ then.
Be that as it may, she insists that the greatest factor in her long-lasting good looks is not the surgeon’s knife, or even the make-up bag, but the gene pool.
‘I’m lucky I’ve inherited my mother’s olive skin which doesn’t wrinkle very much, incredible when you think of how abused it’s been over the years,’ she says.
‘When I think back to some of the things we did, I shudder. On swimwear shoots, we’d slather on cooking oil and literally fry.
'Now we’re paying the price because me and my modelling friends are always having bits chopped off us which are turning nasty. I’ve had a few naughty looking moles taken off before they turn cancerous.’
Her beauty regime today takes half the time and costs half the fortune that it did in years gone by.
‘I’m so over expensive brands. I used to trawl the make-up hall of Harrods and fall for the marketing and sales spiel, but now know it’s just not worth it.
'My beauty products are all picked up in the aisles of the supermarket. I cleanse my face with cheap wipes or pads. I’ve never used an eye or neck cream in my life, as I think they’re a gimmick.
‘But I do like body moisturiser. I love L’Oreal, Neutrogena, Nivea, E45. I buy those huge tubs of it and slather it on every night. I’m like a cross-Channel swimmer ready to face the waves before I go to bed.
‘I use fake tan occasionally but, again, only supermarket brands and once every six weeks I wash my hair in Fairy liquid. It’s fantastic for stripping off the build-up of conditioner.
‘My biggest beauty secret is exfoliation. I do it all the time, but don’t bother with expensive scrubs. I use sea salt from the kitchen when I’m in the shower. It works perfectly and gives your skin a lovely glow.’
And she’s also never felt better. Two years off the Big Six Zero, she credits HRT with helping her to feel healthy.
‘I was really lucky with the menopause,’ she says.
‘I got through it quickly, as I had a full hysterectomy about ten years ago and it was a blessed relief.
‘I’d had a history of gynaecological problems (she was diagnosed with a pre-cancerous condition at the age of 24) and so to be rid of the whole lot was brilliant.
‘I was a bit wary of going on to HRT, but I’ve never looked back and would definitely recommend it for those ladies who can take it.’
Yet even despite these gorgeous photographs, Jilly still maintains she’s not a beauty.
‘I know that I can smarten myself up and make the best of myself, but my features are too uneven, I have too many wobbly bits. ‘I suppose I could say I’m attractive but not beautiful.’
Proof that the only part of Jilly Johnson that appears to be deteriorating is her eyesight.
Last updated at 12:44 AM on 26th November 2011
Advertising billboards, glossy magazines, newspapers, television — she once even stood in the window of Janet Reger’s Bond Street store and modelled the lingerie queen’s silky scanties to the delight of (mostly male) passers-by.
That was more than three decades ago. Today, she is fast approaching 60 — an age when most women are happier slipping into bedsocks than bustiers.
Fabulous then and fabulous now: Jilly Johnson is as trim today as she was as a young model. Now a grandmother to three and a step-grandmother to seven, she will admit to being a size 10 and weighing 9 st 2lb
Jilly's measurements - which for the record used to be 34B-22-34 - are now off limits
So when, six months ago, Jilly was asked to model again for Janet Reger, she did what most women would do in her position. She panicked.
‘As soon as I’d discussed it with my husband and he’d agreed that I should go for it, I thought: “Oh My God, what am I doing?”?’ she says.
‘I called my personal trainer who normally visits once a week and booked him to come for an hour three times a week instead.
‘I couldn’t sleep a wink the night before. I felt so nervous, so vulnerable. These weren’t emotions I’d ever experienced before when modelling. I did question why, at my age, I was putting myself through this.’
She needn’t have lost any sleep. As these stunning pictures prove, the hard work clearly paid off.
With luminous and line-free skin, she has a body that wouldn’t look out of place in the professionals’ dressing room of Strictly Come Dancing.
Yet twice-married Jilly, who is now an author and actress, says that time has indeed caught up with her.
Now a grandmother to three and a step-grandmother to seven, she will admit to being a size 10 and weighing a trim 9?st 2?lb. But her measurements — which for the record used to be 34B-22-34 — are now off limits.
Six months ago, Jilly was asked to model again for Janet Reger. 'My biggest beauty secret is exfoliation. I do it all the time, but don't bother with expensive scrubs,' she said
‘Oh, I’m not even going there, because it’s far too depressing when I get to my middle bit,’ she says.
‘Ageing is so cruel. Sometimes when I’m crossing the road I spot a reflection of this blonde lady in the shop window and I don’t even recognise her. But it’s me.
‘As we get older there are certain things that leave us lacking in confidence. No longer do we have taut, concave tummies. I’ve got a bit of a jelly-belly, but I don’t know of a woman at my age who doesn’t, so I have to comfort myself with that.
‘Some days I think: “You’re not so bad for an old bird. You scrub up pretty well.” But at other times I’m fretting about my jowls, boobs, and bottom and the fact they’re all heading south.’
Once nicknamed ‘The Body’, Jilly was one of the most recognisable models in Britain during the Seventies and Eighties.
Born in 1953 in Australia, she moved to Hertfordshire (where she still lives) with her parents and brother when she was eight, and was all set to head for drama school when she was persuaded to try out for a modelling assignment. As the final shots were taken, Jilly — as a joke — took off her top.
The resulting pictures were splashed over a downmarket tabloid the next day. She was 16.
‘My parents called me rebel without a clue,’ she laughs. ‘I was so headstrong, I did whatever I liked. But I don’t regret what I did. It was an incredible launch pad for my modelling career and I had so much fun.
‘It was first-class flights, five-star hotels, it was all so crazy that at one point I had to ring down to reception to ask what country I was in.’
'My parents called me rebel without a clue. I was so headstrong,' said Jilly (pictured above in 1978)
At 19, she married businessman Brian Johnson ‘far too young’ and the couple had a daughter Lucy.
But the marriage ended after three years. After that, she admits she was often to be seen on the arm of various rock stars and men in the music industry.
Following a short-lived pop career with fellow model Nina Carter in the band Blonde on Blonde, Jilly met and married textile manufacturer Ashley Brodin, 66, and gave up modelling ten years ago to concentrate on writing, acting and looking after her grandchildren.
It was a chance meeting with Janet Reger’s daughter, Aliza, six months ago that led to this age-defying shoot.
‘I was Janet’s very first signing back in the Seventies but had lost touch with her and in 2005 heard the very sad news that she had died,’ she says.
‘A few months ago, I caught up with Aliza, who now designs for Debenhams, and we got talking about how so much advertising is youth-obsessed.
‘Aliza had a brainwave and said to me: “You were our very first model, why don’t you be our current one?” At first I laughed. I hadn’t modelled for more than a decade and really didn’t think I’d be in shape.
‘Then I learned that the photographer would be Brian Aris — who took my very first professional modelling shots nearly 40 years ago — and I decided to go for it. The location would be my house where, again, I’d feel more comfortable.’
In the weeks leading up to the shoot, Jilly threw herself into the kind of beauty and exercise regime that most of us can only maintain in the 24 hours before we hit a beach.
‘I don’t want anyone who sees these photographs to think that this is me naturally without lots of hard work, fake tan, make-up, lighting and a tiny bit of airbrushing,’ she says.
‘I did ask them to go light on the airbrushing though, because I wanted to keep it as realistic as possible.’
‘A lot of this is down to exercise and I hate exercise. I’m no good at it and each morning when my trainer rang the doorbell I’d screech abuse at him, because I didn’t want to do it.
‘I love my food — French brie, red wine, crusty bread — and I can never diet, so I knew that if I didn’t exercise, it would show. On the day of the shoot, I didn’t throw my clothes off like I used to.
'With every outfit I put on, I was trying to drape the scarf and silk negligee over my wobbly bits and Brian kept saying: “Leave it alone, you look fine!” but I wasn’t sure.
‘I was sucking in my stomach so much that I almost fainted.’
Yet as hard as she works to stay in shape, she has also had a little extra help along the way to maintain her youthful looks.
‘I’ve had Botox for donkey’s years,’ she says.
‘In the past I’ve overdone it and had that awful frozen look so many women get nowadays that means you can’t laugh with your eyes. The rest of your face moves but your eyes remain fixed — it’s not a good look.
‘Now, the only place I have it done is between my eyebrows, because I don’t want it to look too obvious. It’s not a secret and I’m not frightened to admit to it.’
'It was first-class flights, five-star hotels, it was all so crazy that at one point I had to ring down to reception to ask what country I was in,' said Jilly
What about more surgical procedures, though. Has she had a boob job, I wonder? She pauses, bites her lips, then decides she won’t go into specifics.
‘I’m not one to be usually coy about these things, but I don’t want to say anything because it will haunt me,’ she says.
‘I’m not denying it — because I don’t want to be untruthful — but if I say I’ve had something done it will follow me around for ever. All I will say is I don’t know of anyone in the Seventies who didn’t have a boob job.’
I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ then.
Be that as it may, she insists that the greatest factor in her long-lasting good looks is not the surgeon’s knife, or even the make-up bag, but the gene pool.
‘I’m lucky I’ve inherited my mother’s olive skin which doesn’t wrinkle very much, incredible when you think of how abused it’s been over the years,’ she says.
‘When I think back to some of the things we did, I shudder. On swimwear shoots, we’d slather on cooking oil and literally fry.
'Now we’re paying the price because me and my modelling friends are always having bits chopped off us which are turning nasty. I’ve had a few naughty looking moles taken off before they turn cancerous.’
Her beauty regime today takes half the time and costs half the fortune that it did in years gone by.
‘I’m so over expensive brands. I used to trawl the make-up hall of Harrods and fall for the marketing and sales spiel, but now know it’s just not worth it.
'My beauty products are all picked up in the aisles of the supermarket. I cleanse my face with cheap wipes or pads. I’ve never used an eye or neck cream in my life, as I think they’re a gimmick.
‘But I do like body moisturiser. I love L’Oreal, Neutrogena, Nivea, E45. I buy those huge tubs of it and slather it on every night. I’m like a cross-Channel swimmer ready to face the waves before I go to bed.
‘I use fake tan occasionally but, again, only supermarket brands and once every six weeks I wash my hair in Fairy liquid. It’s fantastic for stripping off the build-up of conditioner.
‘My biggest beauty secret is exfoliation. I do it all the time, but don’t bother with expensive scrubs. I use sea salt from the kitchen when I’m in the shower. It works perfectly and gives your skin a lovely glow.’
And she’s also never felt better. Two years off the Big Six Zero, she credits HRT with helping her to feel healthy.
‘I was really lucky with the menopause,’ she says.
‘I got through it quickly, as I had a full hysterectomy about ten years ago and it was a blessed relief.
‘I’d had a history of gynaecological problems (she was diagnosed with a pre-cancerous condition at the age of 24) and so to be rid of the whole lot was brilliant.
Yet even despite these gorgeous photographs, Jilly still maintains she’s not a beauty.
Proof that the only part of Jilly Johnson that appears to be deteriorating is her eyesight.
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