I never thought I’d make 40, says Naomi Campbell

Naomi Campbell has said there were times when she didn’t think she would make it to her 40th birthday. Tempting fate only slightly, the fiery supermodel told the Mail on Sunday two months before she turns 40: "I thought I'd never actually make this birthday. I've had times when it was hard for me to look at myself in the mirror, because I didn't really like who I was."

Claiming her phone-throwing days were behind her, she said the years 1998 to 2005 were her difficult years. They included the 1998 assault on her then assistant Georgina Galanis, but not the 2006 incident in which she allegedly threw a jewel-encrusted
phone at her housekeeper, who required stitches as a result, nor the 2008 arrest on suspicion of assaulting a police officer at Heathrow which led to a ban on her flying with British Airways.

"Everyone knows what I've gone through," she said. "I'm human, I make mistakes, but I've come clean on them all. I don't deny them. I've taken the heat and felt highly embarrassed by a lot of them."

In 1992, Campbell met Nelson Mandela, who persuaded her to begin her charity work – the most recent example of which is Fashion For Relief Haiti, in aid of victims of January's earthquake.

Mandela, who she calls her 'honorary grandfather', has apparently been a major support through her troubles. "I don't know why he reached out to me or what he sees in me. Every time I've made a mistake he's told me to keep my head up and keep going… He never tells me off. He just tells me to keep going."

Campbell is now dating Russian billionaire Vladislav Doronin and says she calls Moscow home. She claims that her altercations are all behind her: "It may be odd for a model to say this, but you make more sense of yourself as you get older. I'm so much calmer."

A few days after her interview with the Mail, Campbell was accused of hitting her chauffeur in New York. In this case, however, it was the driver who later apologised, admitting he had got angry and over-reacted.  Perhaps something really has changed. ·