Claudia Schiffer Turned Down a $1 Million Date With an Arab Prince: "It's Not All About Money"

"I just want to be able to walk down the street and be proud of what I do," supermodel says on The Jonathan Ross Show

By Zach Johnson Feb 28, 2014 6:31 PMTags
Claudia SchifferPascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Claudia Schiffer will not be bought.

The German supermodel has revealed that someone once tried to "hire" her for $1million. Recalling the most bizarre moments of her career, she said, "The strangest one was an Arab prince. He asked if he could hire me for a dinner for a million pounds. I declined, and some other supermodel took it."

Schiffer, a millionaire in her own right, is proud that her integrity remained in tact. "It's not all about money," she explained. "I just want to be able to walk down the street and be proud of what I do."

The blond beauty did not name the Arab prince, nor did she identify the model who accepted his offer.

Schiffer also said she felt uncomfortable with the term "supermodel," which was used to describe peers including Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista.

"When they started talking about 'super' and 'supermodel', I thought 'this is really insulting'—I want to be taken seriously in the high-end world of Chanel, Yves St Laurent," the 43-year-old said during an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, airing Saturday. "I don't want to be some supermodel."

"We all got a bit annoyed, which in retrospect was ridiculous," said Schiffer, who considered herself "really, really shy" during her heyday in the '90s. "'Supermodel' sounds like a tabloid name, but then we realized, 'Hold on, maybe actually this is a good thing,' because when we left fashion shows, suddenly there were thousands of people. I'm not exaggerating! You had to have security people get you to your car—it just went crazy...It was like [being] a rock star," the 5-foot-11 stunner added. "I loved it."

She married director Matthew Vaughn in 2002. They are parents to Caspar, Clementine and Cosima.