Christy Turlington Says "Never" to Plastic Surgery: "It Looks Freaky to Me"

The famous supermodel is not a fan of how injectables or surgery looks on customers

By Samantha Schnurr Sep 08, 2016 4:02 PMTags

Supermodel Christy Turlington is leaving it all up to nature. 

The longtime catwalk pro has spent most of her adult life in the public eye, gracing the pages of virtually every magazine and the runways of every top designer. Now, at 47 years old, the avid runner, women's health advocate and mother of two looks virtually ageless, but it's not because of a little nip and tuck. Instead, Turlington says she would "never" get Botox or plastic surgery. 

"For years these things didn't even exist: collagen, fat cells, the crazy stuff people do I cannot imagine," she said in the 170th Anniversary Issue of Town & Country. "First of all, I have no time. Second of all, I don't think it looks good. Maybe I would think differently if I thought it looked good and it didn't hurt and it didn't send bad messages to young people. But I've never seen someone who I've been like, 'Oh, that's a good idea.' It looks freaky to me."

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Celebs Who've Denied or Spoken Out Against Plastic Surgery or Cosmetic Procedures

While many famous faces in Hollywood opt for injectables or full-fledged surgery to turn back the clock, Turlington has no qualms about getting older. 

"I wasn't worried about aging at 16, and I'm not worried about it at 47. It's a fact of life, and it's good that people close to me see that I'm relaxed and okay about aging, not neurotic or worried about it," she explained.

With a 12-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son under her wing, she wants her children to see her exactly as she is as she approaches 50 and beyond. 

"To my kids I'll be the mom who barely shaves her legs, who doesn't color her hair," she continued. "Being who you are, being your best self, has nothing to do with what you look like."

Having come from an industry that is often blamed for perpetuating eating disorders and physical insecurity, Christy doesn't see magazines as a representation of reality—and she doesn't think you should either. 

"I don't think people get eating disorders by looking at magazines. I think there's a much deeper set of issues around a lack of power and control, or something happening in the family," Turlington said. "As an active model and a mother of a 12-year-old girl, I would not blame a magazine or fashion company for that. People have to get over the idea that realism is being projected here."

In fact, Turlington has made large efforts to get away from her former fashion-fueled life, particularly the image painted by that infamous quote from her colleague, Linda Evangelista—"We don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day."

"That's not me," Christy told the magazine of her life nearly three decades later. "I don't know what it is. I tried to do everything I could to distance myself from it. It doesn't come into play in my daily life at all."

Instead, in between running marathons on behalf of women's global health, leading a non-profit and raising her two children, she is years away from her days packed with go-sees. 

"I have a one-day job threshold; two is too much," she told the magazine. "It's like, 'Oh good, at least I can get a manicure. I haven't had one in a year."

The October issue of Town & Country hits newsstands Sept. 13.