In this week’s special Mother’s Day episode of Best Quality Designer Handbag ’s Second Act podcast model mother and daughter duo Yasmin and Amber Le Bon open up about their close relationship, their approaches to mothering, body image, Yasmin’s big regret, crazy fans and turning 60.
If there were three pearls of advice Yasmin Le Bon would like to impart on her daughters it would be to marry someone who makes you laugh, find a hobby and not get hung up on your body image - all of which her eldest daughter Amber seems to be taking on board.
Yasmin celebrated her 40th wedding anniversary to Duran Duran star Simon Le Bon in December and shared the secret sauce behind a long and happy marriage with Second Act’s Ateh Jewel in this week’s special Mothers Day edition.
“It's been an interesting journey, because I've been with somebody my whole life who gets far more attention than I do,” the 61 year-old laughs. “In the early days it was quite hard. Luckily, we were traveling around a lot. So were in a big love bubble for a very long time, out of the paparazzi glare. Now we want to live in each other's pockets because we spent a lot of time apart. We really appreciate that we're a team. He still makes me laugh every day. Even when I want to kill him, he's making me laugh more than I want to kill him.
“You've got to be prepared to go through the ups and downs. Being in a relationship is hard.”
Becoming a grandmother changed Yasmin. “She was a dragon with us,” laughs Amber as she reminisces of times she was taken on photoshoots and world tours with her sisters Saffron and Tallulah. “We had lots of fun, but there were real boundaries and we really had to listen.”
“It's quite different with your grandchildren, than with your own children,” says Yasmin. “I'm very, very close to them. I see them all the time. So, you know, it's not like a special occasion. She's (Amber) still living with me and my middle daughter (Saffron) is at the end of the garden with her three so I see them every day.
“I'm quite tough with them. But I want to be loved and adored by someone. I've never been a lovely fluffy…I don't call him (Simon Le Bon) princess for no reason, he's a fluffy one. They all are obsessed with him.”
Now she has turned 61, Yasmin says she still has lots to do. “She (Amber) wants me to grow old gracefully. I'm like, no. What is graceful?
“I’ve got all the aches and pains, I feel like I need to take care of myself a little bit more now and ease back on the drinking.
“I feel like a fraud because I feel like there is so much I need to learn - I can't possibly be 61. That's impossible. I haven't learned enough yet. Surely I meant to be a sage by by this age.
And there's so much more to do.”
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