Trinny Woodall, 60, reveals her ‘habit of nakedness’ helped promote her early career as she used a cheeky snap as her business card

Trinny Woodall has revealed she used her ‘habit of nudity’ to promote her early career on the London Underground, even using a saucy photo of her bare chest as a calling card.

The 60-year-old businesswoman told Jamie Laing on his podcast Great Company that she used a photo of herself naked from the waist down and with melons on her breasts to boost sales of her first book, Ready 2 Dress, in 2000.

She became wildly popular with Susannah Constantine after their column Ready to Wear, in which she gave fashion advice.

Their global stardom peaked in 2001, when they appeared on the popular BBC programme What Not to Wear.

But before Trinny’s fame, she used some unique tactics to increase her success.

She told Jamie: ‘We had already done a book before we went on TV and the book was based on an image that we used on TV for advertising Ready 2 and it was about everyone is different.

‘So Susannah was there naked – we have a custom of being naked – but naked from the waist down to her breasts, with melons on her breasts. And there was a picture of me looking a bit thin, with fried eggs on my breasts, and it was everywhere.’

The inspiration to bare all came from their advertising agency, Trinny revealed. And the ‘naked’ photo wasn’t just for posters, it became her calling card.

She continued, “We even had cards. That was my calling card, the melon and the fried eggs. So we had this whole campaign and it was fantastic.”

The image eventually became the cover of Trinny and Susannah’s book.

According to Trinny, the book only sold 13,000 copies, meaning they were unable to get the advance funding they needed to follow up on their publication.

Determined to publish their sequel, they negotiated a deal where they would receive a higher percentage of the sales proceeds in lieu of the upfront payment.

The sequel, What Not to Wear, sold over a million copies thanks to their successful TV show.

Elsewhere in the podcast, she spoke candidly about the death of her late husband Johnny Elichaoff, admitting that his tragic passing “made her stronger” for their daughter Lyla.

Businessman Johnny, who was married to Trinny from 1999 to 2009, committed suicide in 2014.

However, Trinny admitted that the tragedy motivated her to make her beauty business a success.

She said, “Death is terrible and final,”

“But suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. It’s like that tsunami that comes and takes the courage out of you. But I also have inner strength. I had to be the one to take care of everyone.”

“When you’re faced with the worst thing you think could happen. I felt like, ‘Nothing worse can happen right now.’ So I should take the biggest risk.”

As well as Lyla, Trinny is also the stepmother to Johnny’s son Zak. She admitted that she ‘couldn’t have lost more emotionally than losing my daughter’s father, for her’.

She also confessed that the tragedy has made her stronger, admitting that she “didn’t grieve for many, many years” because of the “aftermath” and that she “was a little angry,” but that she missed him soon after.

November marks the 10th anniversary of the tragedy. Lyla, 20, will attend her father’s memorial service with her family.

When Johnny died, the star was busy launching her beauty company Trinny London and living in an expensive house.

She decided to sell the house and invest the money in her start-up, which she built into a £180 million beauty empire four years later.

She told Jamie, “It was a moment where I maybe had to roll up my sleeves and make the situation as safe as possible for Lyla.”

“But I also knew this was a crossroads in my life.”

The interview comes after Trinny split from her partner Charles Saatchi, 81, last year after a ten-year relationship.

Friends suggested that the reason behind the split was the 20-year age difference, which caused problems in their relationship.

Speak with The sunFriends of Trinny said she felt it was ‘time to move on’ and that ‘their age difference was becoming an issue.

“Charles wants to take it easy,” the source revealed. “He likes quiet nights in, while Trinny is the opposite.

‘She feels she is in the prime of her life and wants to get out and about.’

Trinny dated Saatch for 10 years after he split from wife Nigella Lawson, but the make-up and beauty mogul took to Instagram to say she wanted to move on.

She posted: ‘It’s a new day, a new dawn, a new life.’ She added: ‘I moved, but now I’m moved.’

The beauty, who was on a skiing holiday in France with her family at the time, said emotionally: ‘I have looked at this view for the last 30 years of my life. It is the only consistent view I have ever had.’

‘Recently, with the big change in my life and the move, it was important for me to come back here with (daughter) Lyla and her family, just to have that moment, listen to the birds, be one with nature. Very healing.’

Saatchi, an advertising executive turned art collector, is said to be worth around £100 million. Trinny’s net worth is not known, but her beauty and skincare brand is said to be worth £180 million and rising. He declined to comment.

In a 2021 interview, Trinny said she had become “a lot more mature” in the relationship. “I don’t just let myself do things, so if I’m upset about something, he’s like, ‘Seriously, are you kidding me?’ And then I go upstairs and I’m like, ‘OK, let me just grow up now.'”

“I think that’s what happens when you’re with someone who’s been through a lot in their life, and there’s no one who supports my business and my jobs and helps me more.”

The couple began dating in 2013 after Saatchi’s first wife, Kay Hartenstein, reportedly made a list of women he might like to date.

He had been single since splitting from food writer Nigella Lawson, shortly after photos were published of Saatchi holding her by the throat during a lunch at Scott’s in Mayfair.

He explained at the time that it was a “playful argument” and accepted a warning from police.

He later said he was just helping Nigella “focus”, but she explained that she had seen a cute baby in a pram pass by and that she was looking forward to becoming a grandmother, which led to an argument.

Great Company with Jamie Laing is available through all podcast providers.