Twiggy has revealed she was too scared to eat sushi when she was a teen model.
The 72-year-old got the chance to visit Japan in the Swinging Sixties when she was just 17.
But she said the thought of eating raw fish then was “insanity” – especially as she had only eaten her mum’s cooking up until that point.
Speaking on her podcast, Tea With Twiggy, the modelling icon shared: “When I was 17, way, way back in the mid-60s, I was asked to go to Japan.
“I was from north-west London and I’d only had my mum’s cooking really. So you can imagine this girl from Neasden sitting in a Japanese restaurant in Tokyo.”
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On the first time she saw the Japanese delicacy, Twiggy said: “The thought of eating raw fish. I thought it was insanity.”
But it seems her tastes have changed as she got older, as she admitted she now loves sushi.
“I mean I love it now but I didn’t eat it then. I was too scared. But I did succumb to it a few years later, as we know it’s wonderful.”
Twiggy, whose real name is Lesley Dawson, shot to fame in the Sixties after being discovered at the age of 16.
Daily Express fashion editor Deirdre McSharry walked into a Mayfair hairdressing salon and declared her ‘The Face of 1966’ after spotting her photo on the wall.
After featuring her in the paper, Twiggy found worldwide fame, modelling in Japan, France and America.
Despite being working-class, the then teenager also graced the covers of high society magazines such as Vogue and Tatler.
Her nickname ‘Twiggy’ comes from family and friends who teased her for her thin, ‘twig-like’ frame, which would later land her fame.
Although her skinny, androgynous look was a hit around the globe and sparked a new look for models, she revealed she hated how she looked.
“I was this funny, skinny little thing with eyelashes and long legs who had grown up hatting how I looked. I thought the world had gone mad,” she told The Guardian.
As well as modelling, Twiggy went on to star on Broadway and in films such as The Boy Friend which won her two Golden Globe awards in 1971.
She appeared as a judge on America’s Next Top Model and has had fashion ranges with the likes of Marks & Spencer.
In 2020 she launched her podcast, Tea With Twiggy, an intimate weekly chat with special guests borne out of the isolation of lockdown.
Star guests have included Joanna Lumley, Pattie Boyd, Michelle Dockery, Sadie Frost and Fergie, the Duchess of York.
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