‘Attitudes To Age Have Changed – For The Better!'

Actress and model IsabellaRossellinion being rehired byLancmein her sixties, the new rules ofageing and why shes saying no to Botox

The daughter of the late Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian director Roberto Rossellini, Isabella, 66, began her career as a model, becoming the first ever face of Lancôme in 1983. It’s a role she held for 12 years while she juggled a successful acting career and starred in films like Blue Velvet, Death Becomes Her and Wild at Heart. At 43, Isabella was dropped by Lancôme for being “too old” but, more than 20 years on, she’s been rehired – proving that age really is just a number. She is single and has two grown-up children.

When I started out, ‘the girls’ – as us models were called – were anonymous.

My name wasn’t even mentioned in the Lancôme ads. I was happy about that as it gave me a feeling of independence; I wasn’t hired for my family pedigree.

I was very sad when Lancôme let me go.

I was told they needed someone younger and I didn’t understand it. Other people would say how happy they were to see a woman who had aged from 28 years old and who was still there in her forties. Lancôme wasn’t the only one to let me go, though – Vogue let me go, designers let me go. It was a tough time.

Receiving a phone call at the age of 63 saying “We’d like you to come back” was a shock.