Nicknamed Trinny after the St Trinian stories because of her childhood mischievousness, Sarah-Jane Woodall’s big break came in 2001 when her newspaper column with Susannah Constantine became the globally successful Bafta-winning TV show ‘What Not to Wear’. In 2017 she launched beauty brand Trinny London, which now employs 220 people. She has one daughter, 20-year-old Lyla, with her ex-husband Johnny Elichaoff, who took his own life in 2014.
I realised that if you want to do well in life, you have to respect money. If you do, then it can bring you freedom with certain life choices and challenges: Can I afford to go on holiday? Can I afford to give somebody a present? Can I afford to pay the rent? Can I afford to buy food this week? Often I wished I would be saved by somebody, and then it took me a few years to get to a stage where I realised that only I could be responsible for that.I sold my previous house to start Trinny London, which I grappled with for a long time. Most people at 60 are trying to pay off their mortgage.
I am healthier now than I ever have been. I have parents who were not that healthy in older age. When they got to their late seventies, they were incapacitated by different ailments, and also by vascular dementia andI learned about addictive tendencies and that lots of people put down one drug and pick up another. I picked up workaholism and anyone who does drugs definitely loves sugar afterwards.