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STYLIST ’S�LIFE�COACH��
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Jo Wood on
forgiveness
Definitive rock chick Jo Wood, 54,
talks modelling, marriage, motherhood
and moving on from a Rolling Stone
The past 18 months must have been
difficult after splitting with your
husband of 24 years, Ronnie Wood.
Who have you turned to for support?
My mother was my biggest support
but my friends were fabulous, too.
Kate Moss told me to go partying
and she was right. She’s a good friend.
She comes round to my house and
we try on my old clothes in my attic.
Your children were very loyal to you
throughout your break-up, are you
very close to them all?
Yes, I’m lucky that way. My kids invite
me out with them. We went to the
Chinawhite’s in London with Leah,
Tyrone and his girlfriend Rosie [model
Huntington-Whitley] recently – they’re
all hilarious. My kids are happy. I’m
proud that they’re so busy and their
lives are so fabulous.
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You’ve said that you forgive Ronnie for
leaving you for 20-year-old Ekaterina
Ivanova. How have you managed to
avoid becoming bitter?
A month after the initial shock I
stopped reading the rubbish in the
newspapers and told myself to get out
there. It was a hard marriage at time,
but a great one. If I can handle what’s
happened to me in the past year, and
then do Strictly Come Dancing, I can
conquer the world.
What was your childhood like?
Happy. My mum cooked healthy food
Are you good at moving on?
and grew vegetables in the garden of
our Essex home. She came from South
Africa so she loved the outdoors. I had
a good dad but he was strict, which
could have contributed to my rebellious
streak. He hated it when I left school at
16 and had my first child, Jamie, nine
months later. Then I met Ronnie!
Did you enjoy modelling?
I loved every minute of it. Agents said
they only booked me because I was
fun to be around. I was 16 when they
took me to Acapulco. I ran home to tell
my dad, excitedly, that I was going on a
1. You’ve been severely disappointed/hurt by the end of a relationship. You:
A. Use the hurt as leverage to push you to find better things. B. Doubt you will find anyone else.
2. You haven’t got the promotion/salary increase you expected or feel you deserve. You:
A. Seek positive solutions, like working on your CV. B. Take it as validation that you’re unlucky.
3. You’ve had a minor setback in your health. You:
A. Seek out active solutions to get better. B. Wallow in your diagnosis and feel sorry for yourself.
4. A friend has let you down or treated you badly. You:
A. Accept them for who they are but resolve to lower your expectations of them from now on.
B. Feel responsible, but continue to set no boundaries about what is and isn’t acceptable.
5. A person or event enrages you at work. You:
A. Feel momentarily angry but quickly move on. B. Stew on the incident for the rest of the day.
WOOD HAS BEEN DETERMINED
TO PUT HER SPLIT WITH
EX-ROCKER RONNIE BEHIND HER
MOSTLY AS
You’re focused
on the future. You
know what’s right
for you and how
to make it happen.
Although it’s
tempting to blame
others when things
go wrong it doesn’t
achieve anything.
Instead take
responsibility for
the direction of your
life by learning from
past mistakes.
big modelling trip to Acapulco in France,
having no idea it was actually in Mexico!
I’d only been down to Devon before.
After you were misdiagnosed with
Crohn’s disease in 1989, you turned to
organic food, why?
I had a perforated intestine and an
inflamed appendix and that’s why they
thought I had Crohn’s. I don’t know what
caused it, but I didn’t have a particularly
bad diet at the time so I started to look
at all the chemicals that go into foods
and decided to switch to organic.
You developed a range of organic
beauty products in 2003. How did this
change your attitude to health?
I’ve become more aware of what goes
on my skin and in my body. Now I’d
only go to the doctor if I broke a bone.
I strongly believe that the chemicals in
food contribute to so many illnesses.
After realising this I went on to look at
what I was cleaning my house with and
then what I was putting on my body.
Did you enjoy taking part in Strictly
Come Dancing?
It was very hard because you only have
four days to learn the new dance each
week. Brendan, my partner, got cross
when I forgot steps and called me
‘granny’, which I hated! I had to have
a nerve management lesson to learn
how to stay calm. It helped. I did it
because I needed to prove that I can
get old without getting old. If you make
yourself do something, you’d be
surprised at what you achieve.
Jo Wood has a range of luxury, certified
organic toiletries (jowoodorganics.com)
MEET OUR
THERAPIST
Lisa Merrick-
Lawless is an
NLP coach with
Headspace (the
headspace.co.uk)
MOSTLY BS
Your focus is too
introspective and
places too much
emphasis on the
things in your
life that aren’t
working. Dwelling
on the past acts like
a brake on your
current life and is a
waste of energy.
Draw a picture of the
future in your mind
and put steps in
place to achieve that.
WORDS��LISA�MERRICK-LAWLESS��THE�HEADSPACE�CO�UK
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