The moment you catch sight of Trinny Woodall, it’s clear that this is a woman who means business. Dressed head to toe in a bright canary yellow suit, she strides through her King’s Road boutique, a chief executive on a mission, stopping only to adjust a display here, to check a product there, as she prepares for her latest press launch. Her glittering disco-ball stilettos might be better suited to a dancefloor, but she navigates the space with complete control. Even in heels, the alpha energy is unmistakable.
“As a CEO, I need to know every part of the business,” she says of her brand, Trinny London, which she launched in 2017 at her kitchen table and which now employs more than 200 people. “There’s a lot I’ve had to learn that I did not have the skill set for. But although I’ve had to pick up a lot of new skills, what I’ve always known is how women feel. That’s what’s carried me through to learn the other stuff.”
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The woman running the show at the launch of her latest skincare product, Naked Ambition, is the same one who recently recorded a cheeky Instagram video to promote it. In the film, a dishevelled Trinny slides out of bed, wriggling free from the arms of a handsome man, before glancing at herself in the mirror. “I can’t let him see me like this,” the voice in her head exclaims. “I don’t even remember his name.”
Trinny Woodall’s feeling sexy in her sixties
As always with Trinny, there’s a message behind the mischief. “Of course we’re still sexy in our fifties and sixties,” she says. “I’m not still a 20-year-old inside, and thank god I’m not, because it wasn’t the best decade. But as women, we shouldn’t shut down our sexuality. I don’t mean we should be off having affairs with everybody, but our sense of being a woman, who can be sensual in herself as a female, is really important.”
She explains that she has only recently started wearing high heels again. “I love dressing in masculine clothing,” she says of the power suits that have become synonymous with her brand. “But I want this feeling of femininity. I’ve been raising money, running a business, very alpha things – but I also need that space to just be a feminine, flirty woman.”
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Trinny has been married once, to the late businessman and former drummer Johnny Elichaoff, whom she married in 1999 and divorced a decade later. They had a daughter together, Lyla, who turns 22 next week. Trinny then had a high-profile relationship with the advertising mogul Charles Saatchi, which lasted around ten years and ended in 2023.
“When you’re a woman in your fifties or sixties, you have friends who are happily married, friends who have been through a painful separation and are living in their past, and women who have discovered the joy of not being in a relationship. I think I’m in that third camp,” she says.
“I don’t need anyone to complete me, but do I want to go out dancing and have fun? Do I want to go to the theatre and not do it on a dating app, but do it through the people I know and their friends? Yes, I do.
“I could endlessly do different things just with female friends, because I am a woman’s woman. But for me, as a woman who’s not crippled at 90 in a bed, I should also be with both sexes, being a woman and being a girl’s best friend. I think they’re both important.”
Helping Second Act Women find their perfect skin
The product she’s launching is more than a new addition to her skincare range. For Trinny, Naked Ambition is about confidence – the kind that comes from feeling comfortable in your own skin, not hiding behind it.
“A lot of women talk about redness, and I just thought how nice it would be to take off your make-up at night and feel there wasn’t such a difference,” she says. “Redness, pigmentation, dullness; they all contribute to uneven-looking skin. And skin evenness is, interestingly, more ageing than wrinkled skin.
“I worked very hard on the ingredients. Azelaic acid reduces inflammation and vitamin C fades unevenness, so the two together make your skin really even and radiant.”
Trinny launched her beauty empire, estimated to be worth £200m, after turning 50, a time when many women are led to feel that their best days in business are behind them. She didn’t hesitate, despite initially experiencing pushback from young male investors.
Trinny launched her business in her 50s
“I didn’t really find my lane until I was 35, so my second-act stage was just an evolution,” she says. “I never thought I should be slowing down. I don’t think that at 61, I should be slowing down, and I’m sure I won’t even when I’m 70. Some friends ask how much longer I can work this hard. But they see it as hard work; I see it’s part of the joy of life.”
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Her journey hasn’t been without challenges. “I think I was a workaholic at one stage,” she says. “When I got clean, I went to NA [Narcotics Anonymous – Trinny went to rehab for cocaine addiction twice; once after an overdose at the age of 21 and for a second time, successfully, aged 26]. Then I went to Debtors Anonymous, for people who need to understand money.
“It’s very difficult to have a balanced relationship around money, and that goes hand in hand with workaholism as an ‘ism’, [like] alcoholism, as [an] addiction. I learned quite a lot about the difference between filling our lives and a need to always be busy, and productively working hard. These days, I fundamentally work hard.”
Trinny’s top tips for a better memory
She’s open about how her troubled past has affected her memory and how she has learned to manage it. “I have some issues with my memory, and that’s probably from addiction,” she says. “It has an impact [at work], so I needed to let the team know.
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“I have a tendency to remember what I feel is important to remember and I might discard other things. For me, it was important to name it. To say: ‘If you’re irritated by the fact that I don’t remember things you’ve told me, this is why.'”
She keeps herself accountable with notes stuck to her mirror, each one a list of action points from previous meetings. “I believe that actions speak louder than words,” she says.
She’s also committed to improving her memory through small but steady changes – going to bed by 10.30pm, tracking her sleep with an Oura Ring, taking creatine and lion’s mane supplements. “And I meditate,” she adds. “Before I did those four things, my memory was much worse.”
To read more, about Trinny’s relationship with her daughter Lyla, and her ambitions for her future, pick up a copy of HELLO! Magazine this week.
