Desert Island Discs: Kate Moss was targeted by predators as a teenage model

As the Queen of the catwalk for three decades, the interview-shy Kate Moss habitually adopts the Queen’s famously unofficial motto: “Never complain, never explain.”

But in a candid interview on Desert Island Discs today, the supermodel reveals the toxic truth about exploitation in the fashion industry and how she was targeted by sexual predators as a young teenager.

Now 48, she remembers being moved to tears by photographers who pressured her to go topless. At the age of 15, the self-confident teen even had to flee a session when she was asked to take off her bra.

‘I had a terrible experience for a bra catalogue,’ she tells BBC Radio 4. ‘I was probably only 15 and he said, ‘Take your top off’, and I took my top off. And I was really shy about my body back then.

“And he said, ‘Take off your bra,’ and I sensed something was wrong, so I packed my things and ran. I think it sharpened my instincts. I can tell a wrong one ‘a mile away’.

Teen Kate, who signed with the Storm modeling agency in 1988 at age 14, would travel unaccompanied through London, completing up to eight modeling assignments a day.

On the radio show, she talks about the 1990 shoot that made her famous – but admits it’s still “painful” to revisit the memory.

The late photographer Corinne Day, with whom Moss often collaborated, took a series of photos for The Face magazine on Camber Sands, East Sussex, at the age of 16.

Moss says, “That crumpled nose on the cover, she’d say, ‘Snoring like a pig’ to get that picture.” And I’d say, “I don’t want to sniff like a pig,” and she’d say, “Sniff like a pig, it looks good.”

The model recalls how she “cryed a lot” during the shoot because she didn’t feel comfortable being “naked,” adding, “I didn’t want to take my top off.

“I was really, really self-conscious about my body and she’d say, ‘If you don’t take your top off, I won’t book you for Elle,’ and I’d cry. It’s painful because she was my best friend and I really loved her – but she was a very difficult person to work with.

“But… the pictures are great, so she got what she wanted and I suffered for it, but in the end they did me a lot of good. They did change my career.’

Moss also recalls shooting an underwear campaign for Calvin Klein in 1992 with Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg, known at the time as Marky Mark. It was her first major ad campaign, but the then 17-year-old had to take Valium to ease her anxiety caused by the prospect of going topless.

When asked by presenter Lauren Laverne if she felt objectified during the campaign, Moss replied: “Yes, absolutely, and vulnerable and scared. I think they played on my vulnerability, and I was quite young and innocent, so Calvin loved that.”

Moss emerged from these early challenges to become one of the most iconic and powerful figures in international fashion, with an inner circle that includes some of the world’s biggest celebrities.

But the highs were accompanied by lows, and Moss speaks candidly about her battles with alcohol and drugs that nearly derailed her career. She recalls her wild childhood growing up in Croydon, South London, when she first went off the rails at age 13 after her parents split up.

“I started smoking spliffs and hanging out with people much older than me, much older guys who took me under their wing and protected me,” she says.

“They would take me to London by train. I would change my school uniform and go to Fred [a bar in Soho]. I didn’t even like the taste of alcohol.

“I’d drink Long Island Ice Teas because it didn’t taste like alcohol, but then of course it’s a strong drink.”

She also reflects on the drug scandal that threatened to destroy her career in 2005. She temporarily lost several lucrative contracts when a national newspaper published photos of her appearing to be using cocaine.

However, her career was resumed when police decided there was not enough evidence to take action.

“I felt sick and was pretty angry because everyone I knew was taking drugs so they focused on me and tried to take my daughter away, which I thought was really hypocritical,” she says.

The star also dismisses the idea that she and Day deliberately created the hugely controversial look dubbed “heroin chic” when they collaborated again on a shoot at the model’s home for Vogue in 1993.

“I think I was the scapegoat for a lot of people’s problems,” she says. ‘I’ve never been anorexic, never have been. I had never taken heroin before.

“I was skinny because I wasn’t fed during shoots or shows and I had always been skinny. It was a fashion shoot. It was recorded in my flat and so I could afford to live at the time.

“And I think it was a shock because I wasn’t voluptuous and I was just a normal girl. I wasn’t a glamazon model, and that shocked them.’

Despite being one of the world’s most photographed women, Moss says she hates being photographed outside of the workplace.

“I’m actually quite shy in front of the camera. I don’t like to be photographed when I’m not working,” she says. ‘I don’t like selfies or snapshots. I find it hard to be myself in front of a camera. I find it much easier to be someone else.’

She has now set up her own modeling agency, which has her 19-year-old daughter Lila on the books.

Moss, who recently sold her home in north London to move to the Cotswolds, says she has given up her ‘boring’ hedonistic lifestyle and discovered a new passion that she can share with her mother Linda.

“I’m obsessed with gardening,” she says. “I have a membership in the garden center, and I go with my mother and we have the best time.”

Her musical choices for the show include George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord, Neil Young’s Harvest Moon, and a specially remixed version of Soul II Soul’s Back To Life featuring Kanye West’s Sunday Service Choir.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is her favorite book and a cashmere blanket is her luxury item.

• Desert Island Discs airs today at 11:15 AM and will be repeated Friday at 9:00 AM.

Kate Moss Reveals The Truth About Johnny Depp — And Her Freud Tattoo — In Desert Island Discs

Lucian Freud left an indelible impression on Kate Moss when he got a tattoo on her thigh as she sat for a portrait.

Recalling their friendship, she says the celebrated artist, who died in 2011 at age 88, originally suggested a chicken upside down in a bucket for a design, but they opted for a more traditional image.

She says, “He gave me a bottle of really good Rothschild wine, and he took out his etching needle and scraped into my thigh a flock of birds that now look like varicose veins. But I’m probably still the only living person with a Lucian Freud on my thigh.”

For Freud’s acclaimed 2002 portrait, Moss posed nude while pregnant with daughter Lila. The painting took about nine months to complete and was later sold to an anonymous bidder for £3.9 million.

Moss is proud of her loyalty to friends. In 2011, she publicly defended fashion designer John Galliano when he was found guilty of making anti-Semitic comments by a French court.

She also caused a sensation earlier this year when she delivered video evidence in support of ex-boyfriend Johnny Depp in his libel lawsuit against Amber Heard, who had been rumored to have pushed the model down the stairs by the actor while they were dating.

Moss explains her point of view, saying, “I believe in the truth, and I believe in fairness and justice. I know John Galliano is not a bad person – he had an alcohol problem and people are turning around. People are not themselves when they drink, and they say things they would never say if they were sober.’

She adds: ‘I know the truth about Johnny [Depp]. I know he never kicked me down the stairs. I had to tell that truth.’

Depp, who was in a relationship with Moss between 1994 and 1998, won the lawsuit against his ex-wife Heard last month.