My interview with the plastic surgery queen

In 1991 I interviewed an American woman called Cindy Jackson.

She was in her mid thirties but looked younger:

Chemo peel, temporal lift, rhinoplasty, collagen lips, silicon breast implants, abdominal lipectomy – you name it, she’s done it. The question is, why?

A few years ago I posted the interview on this blog, adding the following note:

We met in a little cafe just inside the Cafe Royal in Regent Street. I was editing a magazine for an organisation she was a member of so I don't remember if I contacted her or she contacted me. Either way, she had an interesting story to tell that had already attracted the attention of other journalists. Her claim to fame was cosmetic surgery. When we met she had already had twelve 'procedures' costing £20,000 …

By 1999 that sum was reported to have risen to £60k for 27 operations, resulting in an unwelcome and arguably misleading entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

Now 68, the 'eternally youthful’ Jackson, who has been dubbed a ‘human Barbie doll’, has just published a new book, 'How Not To Get Botched', and last week the Telegraph conducted their own interview with the ‘plastic surgery queen'.

I have to say she sounds almost exactly the same as she did all those years ago - modest, down-to-earth, and genuinely anxious to help others learn from her experiences, good and bad.

Published 32 years apart, you can read the two interviews here and here.