Victoria Silvstedt
Funny, down to earth and gorgeous, you'd expect to hate Victoria Silvstedt. As it happens, after speaking to her for a few seconds, you find yourself instantly warming to the ex-playmate.
Starting out as a model when she was 18, Victoria had a tough start starving herself for the runway, before going on to become one of the most successful models in Playboy history.
The lovely lady herself sat down with FemaleFirst to tell us all about her perfect life...
Hello!
Hi how are you!?
I'm great thanks, how are you doing this morning?
I'm good thanks, just feeling a little crazy at the minute- It's like who am I talking to now?! It's been a long journey so far you know, we've been in Hong Kong, Rome and now I'm here. I'm very excited, but a bit jet lagged, but no, I'm ok though!
What have you been up to recently?
Well, I've been filming three TV shows at the same time, I'm hosting a new TV show on prime time French television and I have six million viewers every night, so It's huge in France and I'm doing another show in Italy, like Wheel of Fortune but in Italian and at the same time I've been doing the E! show, which wrapped a few months ago. I don't have time for myself any more!
Tell me all about your new reality show
Erm, well it's more of a documentary about my life, you know my parties, my work, when I'm not working- it kind of takes me all over the world actually. It's a nice fun show for young girls to watch because it's a lot of fashion and behind the scenes, you know so they can see what goes on. Modelling and stuff like that, easy watching, light-hearted you know? And I'm such a big fan of the E! shows and the E! channel in general, so it's a great experience for me.
Does the camera follow you around for the whole time then?
No, it's not really all the time. You know for each episode it's like for four or five days and we did eight episodes, and yes it's been a lot, but erm.. it's fun and it's different. When the cameras are there all the time you know, it's hard and you can't forget about them.
Why did you decide to do the show?
Well it's such great promotion for me worldwide, you know I work in so many countries and it will come out in America and that's huge. They've done like all the American celebrities and this is like the first international production they've done, so I'm really like a test pig you know! It's a huge honour for me to do something for them, the fact that they chose me is great- how could I say no!? Free promotion for me, you know!?
You've worked for some of the most fashionable labels in the world. What was that like and which was your favourite?
Well, I started very young to model in Paris when I was 18, I remember like starving myself to fit into the clothes and it was an amazing experience but you know I did shows for Valentino, Chanel, so it was really prestigious. But it never felt like it was my thing, I'm not like a runway skinny model, I'm more curvy. It was torture, I put myself through starvation, you know torturing myself. To be a young girl as well, you cannot take criticism, everything that you hear is like 'no no no' and then I went to Playboy and I could be bigger!
Was that what the modelling industry was like back then?
Yes, it was awful. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?
You've done so much in your life, what do you consider to be your occupation now?
Oh, most of my work now is TV presenting, so whatever else I do- you know I still do modelling and acting too, so I don't really now what to call myself anymore! It's great now though because people don't have to be categorized anymore. Before you could only do acting or TV presenting, or whatever. There's so many things you can do now, it's just so great.
You launched your own lingerie line in 2006, what inspired you to do that?
Well, people were always coming up to me asking why I didn't do my own line and I had a contract with a German company for a few years, and then I thought I should do my own and it just felt like a natural thing. The designs were girly and sexy, just normal cute stuff for every woman.
You've been a playmate in the past, have you found it difficult to shake off that image?
Yes, it took me so long, I mean it's been 10 years ago and to me it does feel like yesterday, I can't believe it was that long ago! I'm still in touch with Hugh and the girls and my best friend in LA is now dating Hugh Hefner, so she's e-mailing me all these pictures like 'Look it's me and Hef!' When I see him out in LA of course I still talk to him- I get all the inside scoop too!
Why did you decide to leave that behind then and do something different?
Because there's so much more out there, if you do Playboy and you stick to it, there's no money in that. And you get more money doing respectable things, but I loved Playboy and I'm not ashamed of it, you know it kick started my career and naturally I started doing other things after a while, I think the fact that I'm European and I have contacts in Europe really helped too, and I speak different languages, so all that helps.
Are you single at the moment, or are you dating anybody?
Well, I'm separated and I'm just trying to figure out what's going on at the minute. I'm focusing on work and we'll see what happens.
You skied when you were younger, could it have been a whole different career path for you if you hadn't of had the injured yourself?
I think so, because I was taking it very seriously and competing every weekend and that was my goal you know, to be really good and then I started to open my eyes towards the fashion world and I was getting attacked by model scouts, so that's when I figured out that I wanted to do something different.
Good luck with everything, Bye!
Thank you so much, Bye!
Victoria Silvstedt: Mt Perfect Life, Sundays at 10.30pm on E! Entertainment Television (Sky: 151/ Virgin Media 173)
FemaleFirst- Laura Terry
Funny, down to earth and gorgeous, you'd expect to hate Victoria Silvstedt. As it happens, after speaking to her for a few seconds, you find yourself instantly warming to the ex-playmate.
Starting out as a model when she was 18, Victoria had a tough start starving herself for the runway, before going on to become one of the most successful models in Playboy history.
The lovely lady herself sat down with FemaleFirst to tell us all about her perfect life...
Hello!
Hi how are you!?
I'm great thanks, how are you doing this morning?
I'm good thanks, just feeling a little crazy at the minute- It's like who am I talking to now?! It's been a long journey so far you know, we've been in Hong Kong, Rome and now I'm here. I'm very excited, but a bit jet lagged, but no, I'm ok though!
What have you been up to recently?
Well, I've been filming three TV shows at the same time, I'm hosting a new TV show on prime time French television and I have six million viewers every night, so It's huge in France and I'm doing another show in Italy, like Wheel of Fortune but in Italian and at the same time I've been doing the E! show, which wrapped a few months ago. I don't have time for myself any more!
Tell me all about your new reality show
Erm, well it's more of a documentary about my life, you know my parties, my work, when I'm not working- it kind of takes me all over the world actually. It's a nice fun show for young girls to watch because it's a lot of fashion and behind the scenes, you know so they can see what goes on. Modelling and stuff like that, easy watching, light-hearted you know? And I'm such a big fan of the E! shows and the E! channel in general, so it's a great experience for me.
Does the camera follow you around for the whole time then?
No, it's not really all the time. You know for each episode it's like for four or five days and we did eight episodes, and yes it's been a lot, but erm.. it's fun and it's different. When the cameras are there all the time you know, it's hard and you can't forget about them.
Why did you decide to do the show?
Well it's such great promotion for me worldwide, you know I work in so many countries and it will come out in America and that's huge. They've done like all the American celebrities and this is like the first international production they've done, so I'm really like a test pig you know! It's a huge honour for me to do something for them, the fact that they chose me is great- how could I say no!? Free promotion for me, you know!?
You've worked for some of the most fashionable labels in the world. What was that like and which was your favourite?
Well, I started very young to model in Paris when I was 18, I remember like starving myself to fit into the clothes and it was an amazing experience but you know I did shows for Valentino, Chanel, so it was really prestigious. But it never felt like it was my thing, I'm not like a runway skinny model, I'm more curvy. It was torture, I put myself through starvation, you know torturing myself. To be a young girl as well, you cannot take criticism, everything that you hear is like 'no no no' and then I went to Playboy and I could be bigger!
Was that what the modelling industry was like back then?
Yes, it was awful. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?
You've done so much in your life, what do you consider to be your occupation now?
Oh, most of my work now is TV presenting, so whatever else I do- you know I still do modelling and acting too, so I don't really now what to call myself anymore! It's great now though because people don't have to be categorized anymore. Before you could only do acting or TV presenting, or whatever. There's so many things you can do now, it's just so great.
You launched your own lingerie line in 2006, what inspired you to do that?
Well, people were always coming up to me asking why I didn't do my own line and I had a contract with a German company for a few years, and then I thought I should do my own and it just felt like a natural thing. The designs were girly and sexy, just normal cute stuff for every woman.