SHE has been a magazine cover girl and striding the world’s catwalks for decades and now our very own supermodel, Kate Moss, turns 50 today.
Spotted at 14 and from Croydon, South London, she is without a doubt one of the most famous beauties in the world.
To celebrate her never-ending success, we look at her work, loves and lifestyle through the decades . . .
1980s: Kate was scouted at the age of 14 at JFK airport in New York when she was approached by the brother of the founder of Storm modelling agency.
She later told how she felt like the “bee’s knees” after losing her virginity around the same time but admitted she had “never, never, never” considered a career in the industry, as she is only 5ft 7in and was not “the prettiest girl in the school”.
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A year later she ran away from a dodgy photographer who asked her to remove her bra on a shoot.
“I had a horrible experience for a bra catalogue,” Kate told BBC Radio 4 favourite Desert Island Discs. “I was only 15, probably, and he said, ‘Take your top off’ and I took my top off.
“And I was really shy then about my body.
"And he said, ‘Take your bra off’, and I could feel there was something wrong, so I got my stuff and I ran away.”
Kate said the experience has “sharpened her instincts” and was one of the reasons she later set up her own modelling agency.
1990s
Her big breakthrough came aged 17 when she modelled for a Calvin Klein underwear campaign with actor Mark Wahlberg, then 19, which became iconic.
Despite this, Kate does not have fond memories of the day.
She later told how she dreaded going topless for the sexy shoot and took anxiety medication Valium to calm her nerves.
At 19 she featured on the cover of British Vogue.
Little did she know then, but that was the first of more than 40 (and still counting) British Vogue covers to come.
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No one has come close to that figure.
She started dating actor Johnny Depp, then 31, in 1994.
That year, he was arrested for trashing a room at The Mark Hotel in New York while staying there with Kate.
The pair had a tumultuous relationship — and a lot of PDA — before they split in 1997.
Friends say Johnny broke her heart and she “cried for hours” following their break-up.
“There’s nobody that’s ever really been able to take care of me. Johnny did for a bit,” she later said.
According to sources, Kate’s drug abuse began after she dated the Edward Scissorhands actor, and she could snort “three grams of coke and drink a bottle of vodka” in one sitting.
Friends dubbed her The Tank as she could drink well into the night.
2000s
Kate first appeared in a Rimmel cosmetics campaign in 2001. “Get the London look” is one of the most renowned advertising taglines of all time, thanks to Kate.
Around this time she started dating publisher Jefferson Hack after he interviewed her for the magazine he co founded, Dazed & Confused.
The pair had a whirlwind romance and had their daughter Lila Grace, now 21, a year later.
They broke up in 2004 but are still close today.
She went on to date the former Libertines frontman, drug-taking Pete Doherty, after meeting him at her 31st birthday party.
In 2005, she was immortalised by artist Banksy as he paid tribute to Andy Warhol in prints combining the faces of Kate and Marilyn Monroe.
But in the same year alarming photographs of Kate allegedly snorting cocaine appeared on the front pages of newspapers.
She was dubbed “cocaine Kate” and dropped by major fashion labels Chanel, Burberry and H&M.
In July 2007 Pete and Kate parted. In his memoir, A Likely Lad, Pete, now aged 44 and clean, wrote that there was “not really one specific incident that caused them to split”, stating: “Our worlds were not really compatible in the end.”
But he also added: “Kate didn’t go to crack dens.”
Despite the drugs scandal, Kate managed to salvage her career and in 2008 artist Marc Quinn made a life-sized, 18-carat gold statue of the model which is still on show at the British Museum.
2010s
Kate has always had a penchant for musicians and went on to marry rocker Jamie Hince in 2011.
The model had 15 bridesmaids and flower girls, ages two to 14, at her Great Gatsby-style wedding in a ceremony near her Cotswolds home.
Sadly, their happiness was short lived and the couple split four years later.
In 2013 she posed for Playboy’s big 60th anniversary in what the mag called an “unprecedented” 18-page spread.
And in 2016 she founded the Kate Moss Agency for models, which has many notable talents on its roster, including her daughter, Lila Grace, and singer Rita Ora.
2020s
The star has been modelling less and less in recent years, choosing instead to launch business ventures which put her behind the camera.
She has also reinvented herself as an unlikely health guru, swapping champagne and cigarettes for gardening at her home in the Oxfordshire countryside.
In 2022 she followed in the footsteps of A-list American actress Gwyneth Paltrow by launching her own wellness brand, Cosmoss.
She was replaced as the face of Rimmel London last year — who she had represented for more than 20 years — by Love Island presenter Maya Jama, 29.
After a string of short-term relationships in the Noughties, the supermodel has been in a strong and stable relationship with photographer Count Nikolai von Bismarck since 2015.
Here’s to the next 30 years, Kate
