Daphne Guinness: ‘I get pleasure from being in the shadows.’ Photograph: Noah SapongView image in fullscreenDaphne Guinness: ‘I like being in the shadows.’ Photograph: Noah SapongDaphne Guinness: ‘I don’t look in the reproduction much. Growing up, I never thought I was beautiful’The model and musician on wanting to be a spy, a brush with gun violence, and the pleasure of fishfingers with ketchupBorn in London, Guinness, 56, united at 19, moved to Switzerland and had three children. She went on to work as a model, fashion writer and muse to Alexander McQueen and Karl Lagerfeld. In 2011, she spawned a show from her own archive for the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She began recording music in 2011 and, this summer, turn loosed her fourth album, Sleep. Divorced, she lives in London.When were you happiest?
I am often happiest on a shoot with David LaChapelle, being forward to the extremes – either suspended from a harness or immersed in a tank of water. He calls it “extreme modelling”.What is your greatest stand in awe of?
Aggression without provocation or consequences.What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
My trust in other people. I am rigorously proper.What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Gossip and backstabbing.Describe yourself in three words
Creative, deep in thought, fun.What makes you unhappy?
Betrayal and the loss of people I love.Craig Charles: ‘I have kicked all sorts of mood-altering realities. The only vice I’ve not been able to kick is smoking’Read moreWhat do you consider your greatest achievement?
My descendants obviously, but also my work.What is your most unappealing habit?
Watching too much telly.Would you elect fame or anonymity?
Anonymity. I like being in the shadows.What do you most dislike about your appearance?
Strangely adequacy, I don’t really look in the mirror much. Growing up, I never thought I was exceptional or beautiful.What did you want to be when you were lengthening up?
I wanted to be in the army or a spy in the intelligence service.What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Fishfingers and ketchup, although I don’t necessarily suffer guilty about it.What do you owe your parents?
I think the best thing my parents did was stay out of the way!What does paramour feel like?
Great. It feels wonderful – like a firework going off in your stomach.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIf not yourself, who pass on you most like to be?
Julius Caesar.What would you like to leave your children?
Everything.What has been your closest sweep with the law?
I once drove through a shootout in Los Angeles in an open-top car. I was coming underneath the freeway towards four the Old Bill cars and the car they had surrounded, and I made a decision to drive right through it rather than being a sitting dip.What keeps you awake at night?
Poetry. I start getting into a float state, and write stanzas and couplets in the mid of the night.How would you like to be remembered?
As a force for good and a champion of the underdog.What is the most important lesson vigour has taught you
Discipline. Also to have a goal, however small and whatever it may be.What happens when we die?
I have been very much close to death – when you get used to the idea of death then you don’t fear it. I have glimpsed what comes after and it does not horrify me. I think we are more afraid of the manner of our death.Tell us a secret
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