Born in Welwyn Garden City in 1972, Lisa Snowdon attended the Italia Conti Stage School from the age of 14, and became a model before embarking on a successful broadcasting career. She moved to Los Angeles in the late 90s where she dated actor George Clooney for five years until 2005. In 2008 she appeared as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing and, in the same year, began an eight-year stint co-hosting the Capital Radio Breakfast Show. The 53-year-old lives with her fiancé George Smart in Epping Forest.
Here she looks back on the moments that changed her perspective on work, love, family, money and health.
I was spotted dancing at a rave when I was 19. I was dancing on a podium in my Reebok high tops and a scout from Premier Models said to me: “Excuse me, are you a model?” I said: “No,” then she gave me her card and two weeks later I ended up signing with the agency.
I made it as a model because I was tenacious. I marched around London come rain or shine in my biker boots shamelessly pedalling my wares to the same photographers, week after week. I ended up going to Italy with Ellesse and doing these sportswear catwalk shows. Then, I took my agency’s advice to get rid of my curly perm, did a Triumph lingerie calendar with Patrick Lichfield and everything snowballed from there.
Modelling was brutal – it was constant judgement. You used to have Polaroid cameras, and I’d be watching everyone discussing my pictures, desperate for some positive validation. Then they’d be like, “Okay, we’re gonna change you now,” and you’re like, “F***, have I done something wrong?” Or, you’d get to a job where they had booked you on the strength of your portfolio, then they’d see you in the flesh, and say: “No. We don’t like you anymore.”
Doing the Special K adverts paid for my house. I did four massive campaigns and earned enough to pay for my first property. Do I still eat Special K for breakfast? To be honest, I never really did. It’s a good cereal but since I learned what goes into them, I don’t eat any cereals any more.
I was in a vicious cycle of attracting narcissistic characters, the wrong people – ending up disappointed, hurt and just used. The high-profile person I had a five-year relationship with wasn’t one of the very evil ones.
I had a sprinkling of a few decent chaps, but for whatever reason, they didn’t work out, and then I just went back to my default setting as it was just easier. It was almost like, “Oh, I recognize this. This is comfortable. He’s being an asshole. I expect it. I deserve it.” It wasn’t until I was in my early 40s, that I was like, “Shit, I need to do something about my bad relationship choices.”
My friends eventually intervened and said, “You need to go to therapy.” I got to the first session, and he was like, “What has taken you so long? You should have come 20 or 30 years ago.” The therapist told me: “No dating, no texting, no online apps, no flirting, nothing.” I was going from one relationship to another, and I never had time to really heal and learn. It was a good exercise in putting the blinkers on everything. I just focused on what mistakes I’d been making and what I actually wanted. But I always knew I’d find true love.
Love with my fiancé George is a partnership. It’s teamwork. It’s communication. It’s security. It’s humour. It’s adventure. We’ve got each other’s backs. It’s how it should be. It’s a friendship. It’s respect. And that is what’s really exciting.
I’m really interested in longevity and learning to live longer and live better. I’ve had challenges with hormones and menopause and metabolism and bone health and on the outside, I want to look and feel as good as I possibly can. In the last couple of years, I’ve got on top of my health.
I was in this thick fog of confusion for a good five, six years, and I didn’t even know what perimenopausal meant when I first started experiencing symptoms 12 years ago. I went to the wrong doctors, ended up spending a lot of money getting the wrong diagnosis and the wrong HRT. That’s why I was inspired to write my book, because I wanted women to fast-track their diagnosis.
I had some very, very dark moments during my menopause. I wasn’t sleeping and had no control over the exhaustion and bleakness I felt. I got to the point where I was thinking: “How am I going to tell my agent I can’t do this job?”
Having George as a support system was invaluable. He would drag me out for a walk in the forest to ground myself and just help me take deep breaths and get myself out of my own head, stay off my phone and social media and just go, “What is going on? What do I need to do?”
Exercise really does change your brain chemistry and is brilliant too. And finally getting the right HRT was amazing, although it wasn’t a silver bullet. I still had weight to lose. I still had sleep to get back on track. I still had my hot flushes, I still had my night sweats, but it was the start of me rebuilding myself and realising that I had to look at everything from a 360 perspective.
I contracted meningitis at the end of 2010, and since being an ambassador for Meningitis Now, I’m now president. My charity work is really important to me, which is why I’m delighted to be hosting the Smiley Charity Film Awards. I love the fact that these awards acknowledge these charities. It really does encourage and inspire people to dig a little deeper.
Taking on a parental role with my two younger sisters affected my health. My parents separated for good when I was 17 and I always wanted to make everything great for everybody. I wanted to gloss over it, so I just took on a lot of responsibilities with my sisters and it sort of continued all my life. I only realised recently how much that was impacting my health.
I learned your parents are not superheroes; they’re just real people trying to do the best they bloody can. I love both my parents to bits. I speak to them most days, and I can now appreciate that they were just very different people. My mum got pregnant with me immediately and they were just so young. Of course they made mistakes, and thank god they did, because we’re all here.
My family are everything. The kids that my sisters have got are fantastic and George’s brother has got two little girls and they’re amazing too. I took my niece Willow to see Taylor Swift last summer and the tickets were extortionate, but it was so worth it. I got her a little gold-fringed dress and she wore her Jordans, and it was an amazing day. She fell asleep in the cab on the way home – I got big auntie brownie points for that.
I don’t want to be all about selling stuff on Instagram, and I don’t want to spread myself too thin. Money enables me to do the things I want to do, and I do like to make money. It enables me to do things like help my dad with his knee surgery or to go on holidays with my family. There’s a bit of a thrill for me to get a great campaign, but I’ve never wanted money to be my motivation as sometimes you can lose that balance. I never want to be doing things that I don’t enjoy just because I’m getting a pay cheque at the end of the day. I choose the jobs I take more carefully now.
If I had endless riches I’d open a wellness centre. I’d travel to places like Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the Caribbean, Costa Rica and Peru, and I’d seek out the most perfect location, then invite all the greatest practitioners to visit and get the best machines to make a brilliant centre for people to come and just have a proper health reset. I just want people to feel f**king fantastic for longer.
Lisa Snowdon is hosting the Smiley Charity Film Awards on 20 March, the world’s largest celebration of purpose-driven film campaigns. Watch the live stream on the night at www.smileycharityfilmawards.com
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