Women Affairs

A French model who posed nude for an anti-anorexia campaign while suffering from the illness herself has died at the age of 28, her colleagues confirm. Isabelle Caro died on 17 November after being treated for an acute respiratory illness, Swiss singer Vincent Bigler told journalists. He added that he did not know the exact cause of death. Ms Caro appeared in posters for an anti-anorexia campaign in 2007, but the ads were banned in several countries. It was not clear why it took so long for her death to be made public. The anti-anorexia campaign came amid a debate among fashion circles on the use of "ultra-skinny" models on the catwalk. The AFP news agency reported her as saying at the time: "I thought this could be a chance to use my suffering to get a message across, and finally put an image on what thinness represents and the danger it leads to - which is death." The model, who was 5ft 4in tall ...

Naomi Campbell was hand-cuffed and removed from a British Airways flight she was trying to board, and arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer who had been called to deal with the disturbance. Police confirmed that a 37-year-old woman was arrested but refused to confirm her name. A spokesman for BA said: "We can confirm that a passenger was removed by police from a BA flight this afternoon." Ms Campbell was due to catch a flight from Heathrow to Los Angeles at 4pm and apparently mislaid one of her three items of hand luggage. She is then said to have demanded that airport staff find the bag and rejected their offer to forward it on. As the incident escalated, staff asked her to leave the aircraft, accusing her of being unfit to fly. Police were then called to deal with the incident and reports say she was heard screaming "get off me, leave me alone" before she allegedly assaulted a police officer. Her flight, BA269, lef...

NIALL FIRTH She might be tasty, but his stunning girlfriend Daria Zhukova proved too good for Roman Abramovich to resist as the couple went for a dip off the billionaire's luxury yacht. The Chelsea owner couldn't help taking a cheeky bite out of his 26-year-old girlfriend's behind as they climbed up the ladder of his super-yacht Ecstasea, anchored off the port of a Caribbean holiday island. Abramovich was spotted with the former Russian model in the port of Gustavia, on the French West Indies Island of St Bart's, a favourite holiday destination for the rich and famous. After strolling around the seaside resort, where the two are said to be property hunting, the heavens opened and they had to beat a hasty retreat to the comfort of Abramovich's luxury yacht anchored in the harbour. Born in Moscow and privately schooled in Britain, socialite and former model Zhukova studied homeopathy at the London College of Naturopathic Medicine, and has launched a clothing line that...

One of Ireland's leading models has died days after collapsing at a party, sparking claims the country is in the grip of a growing drug crisis. Police have confirmed they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of model and celebrity Katy French, 24, who failed to emerge from a coma after falling ill at a friend's house party at the weekend. Ms French's collapse led to widespread claims she had been taking cocaine at the party. Despite huge media interest this week in Ms French's condition, family, friends and health officials refused to discuss the cause of her sudden illness. The model had admitted in media interviews to taking cocaine in the past but had since given up the drug and had warned others of its dangers. Irish police confirmed officers were making preliminary inquiries into the circumstances around Ms French's illness. In a statement. Ms French's family said: "We have been overwhelmed by the letters, blessings, gifts and pray...

After drugs and rock 'n' roll, sex has caught the eye of the police in Pune. The Crime Branch last week unearthed a major Internet-based sex racket of countrywide proportions involving models -turned-television actresses - three were arrested. The action followed last month's arrest of two Mumbai-based models and a tout from the film industry, and the detention earlier in the year of over 150 young people in a rave party that had set off a chain of narcotics seizures, all of which the police said were signs of lifestyle crimes coming to booming Pune, some 170 km from Mumbai. The latest arrests came after a complaint against a website, chamadi.com, by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha city chief Sandeep Khardekar. The police said models from various cities across the country had posted their cellular phone numbers to offer "escort" services to "discerning gentlemen". The website invites successful men who were pressed for time, and could not manage long-term r...

She has been called the face of Africa. She inherited her long body from her father, her smile from her mother, and showed the fashion world that beauty could encompass more than the blonde of Claudia Schiffer or the oomph of Elle Macpherson. Alek Wek never intended to be a model. At 19, she was approached by an agent while walking in a south London park with an English girlfriend, whom Wek considered much prettier. In her memoir, Alek, the 30-year-old Dinka woman from southern Sudan tells the story of her flight from civil war, her time as a refugee in London, and 10 years on the catwalks of Milan, Paris and New York. Wek may not be on a first-name basis with fame - like, say, Kate - but the regal, 181-centimetre-tall model has been recognisable since 1997, the year Gilles Bensimon photographed her for the cover of American Elle and proved jet black could be beautiful. Her brilliant career almost stalled early on when assistants to photographer Steven Meisel advised the agency promoti...

Halle Berry has received racist death threats to her unborn baby. The Oscar-winning beauty - who recently announced she was expecting her first child with boyfriend Gabriel Aubry - has been forced to hire security guards after allegedly receiving several disturbing letters from an anonymous writer. One note warned she and her child would be "cut into hundreds of pieces". A source close to the actress told Britain's Daily Mirror: "Halle does not normally use security but she has taken on a couple of guys to make sure." In 2002, Halle became the first woman of American African descent to win a best actress Oscar for her role in Monster's Ball. Despite the upsetting threats, Halle is enjoying her pregnancy, and her boyfriend Gabriel has revealed she is craving pickles and bread. The 32-year-old model told People magazine: "She does crave pickles. And any bread. Doesn't matter, as long as it's salt and pickles." Gabriel - who met 41-year-old Ha...

Supermodel Naomi Campbell has vowed to set up her own modelling agency in her beloved Kenya in an attempt to redress the balance between black and white fashion models. She made her fiery voice loud and clear (once again), after telling a Kenyan journalist earlier this week. “It’s a pity that people don’t appreciate black beauty.” She continued. “There is prejudice. It is a problem and I can’t go along anymore with brushing it under the carpet.” Campbell, notorious for her temper tantrums and who has earned a lucrative living as one of the world’s most famous black models, was speaking at a press conference in the beach resort of Malindi, Kenya, where she is on holiday. The 37-year-old said she found it harder to get onto the coveted front cover as editors of magazines like Vogue consistently chose less prominent white models for news stand impact. “This business is about selling, and blonde and blue-eyed girls are what sell.” “Black models are being sidelined by the major modelling ag...