Alert – Vivienne Westwood’s model granddaughter Cora Corre says she felt ‘sad and anxious’ during secret battle with her body image and ‘extreme dieting’

Vivienne Westwood’s model granddaughter Cora Corre has opened up for the first time about her private battle with body image and extreme dieting. 

British fashion royalty Cora, 27, is the daughter of Agent Provocateur lingerie founders Serena Rees and Joe Corre, and the paternal granddaughter of the late designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, who died in 2022.  

But despite her gilded lineage and early start in the industry – she walked her first Westwood show aged just four – Cora says the path was far from easy.

She has now revealed how industry pressures threw her into a destructive cycle of restriction, shame and obsessive exercise.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Before the Lights podcast, Cora explained: ‘I’m incredibly privileged, but sometimes when you grow up in those scenarios, you want to do everything but.

‘I wanted to be a human rights lawyer. I went to school and decided to not do anything creative – but I probably was creative, whether I liked it or not. I love fashion.’

Vivienne Westwood’s model granddaughter Cora Corre has opened up for the first time about her private battle with body image and extreme dieting

British fashion royalty Cora, 27, is the daughter of Agent Provocateur lingerie founders Serena Rees and Joe Corre, and the paternal granddaughter of the late designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, who died in 2022; pictured with Dame Vivienne in March 2022

Cora started modelling professionally at 16, but admitted she ‘used to go through stages of liking it and not liking it.’

Doing editorial shoots in her teens damaged her body image, she confessed, because she was never ‘skinny’ enough nor ‘plus sized’ enough to meet industry standards.

She said: ‘There was no in-between – and I would fall into the in-between. The industry has come so far, which is amazing, but it definitely still has so far to go.’

Cora continued: ‘I never was into being super, super skinny because that’s not how I naturally am, and I don’t want to live miserably… but my journey with fitness and all those things was extreme.

‘I’d be like, “I need to work out every day because I ate like crap for a few weeks”. Or I’d eat one bad thing, and be like, “F*** it!” And then you eat everything. And then you go into this cycle. I used to have a cheeseburger and then go to extremes, like do a juice cleanse.’

Describing feeling ‘sad and anxious’ as a result, the Marc Jacobs campaign star confessed she’d go on punishing health kicks in a bid to compensate – but even they would backfire.

She said: ‘I wouldn’t have the brownie I wanted. I’d end up eating a million things to try and satisfy that craving. 

‘And then you end up having the brownie anyway or you’re constantly obsessing about the next thing you’re going to eat because you’re trying to be healthy.’

But despite her gilded lineage and early start in the industry – she walked her first Westwood show aged just four – Cora says the path was far from easy

She has now revealed how industry pressures threw her into a destructive cycle of restriction, shame and obsessive exercise; pictured with Dame Vivienne in 2014 

It wasn’t just her body that left her feeling out of place. As the daughter of a Kashmiri mother, Cora often struggled to fit the industry’s narrow idea of what it meant to be British.

‘People saw Vivienne Westwood as this English treasure, so you expect her lineage to be the same – an English rose. And then I turn up and I’m half English, half Kashmiri.

‘I was definitely pigeonholed as this British legacy, but then there was a disconnect with the background of my mum. I even had it at school.

She added: ‘There’s so much more understanding and inclusivity that I don’t think that would have happened now.

‘But it was at a time when the fashion industry hadn’t advanced. Now we’re more open to the idea of people being mixed, but still British.’

Cora, who grew up in London with the next generation of the original Primrose Hill set – her childhood friends include Kate Moss’s daughter Lila and Jude Law and Sadie Frost’s son Rafferty – said that along with industry changes, she has learned to shift her mindset, too.

‘Now I just eat what I want when I want it,’ she explained, crediting her new attitude to going to the gym every week – sometimes as often as five days – for the last two years. 

Far from it being an obsession revolving around her looks, it’s all about how it makes her feel.

She continued: ‘Being a model and knowing that I’m not a size zero; feeling strong mentally and being sure of yourself is something that I’ve built to such a crazy level.

‘Training and knowing that I’m showing up for myself has made me feel the best I’ve ever felt.

Cora started modelling professionally at 16, but admitted she ‘used to go through stages of liking it and not liking it’, she said: ‘I don’t want to live miserably… but my journey with fitness and all those things was extreme’

‘When you go into a casting – which might feel scary when there’s loads of incredible, beautiful models – I don’t walk away from those things doubting myself, because I feel strong. It’s not a physical thing – it’s inside.’

As well as regular sessions with her personal trainer at a gym in London’s Fitzrovia, Cora recently gave herself a health boost with a luxe trip to SHA Wellness Clinic, which has locations in Spain and Mexico.

She took her exercise-phobic dad, Joe, to the swish retreat where one night’s stay will set you back anywhere between £500 and £6,300 depending on your choice of accommodation.

‘I thought it would be a good reset for both of us. It wasn’t restrictive. It taught you how important food is to feed your body. It was actually really a healthy thing.

‘In the past, I’ve been to places where they do juice cleanses and it’s really restrictive. Now I’d never go back to one of those places because it’s not right,’ Cora added. 

Her candour comes amid a new chapter for Cora, who late last year resigned from the Vivienne Westwood label following explosive disagreements with the company’s CEO Carlo d’Amario.

She accused the company of misusing her grandmother’s designs and contesting trademarks, hindering the work of the Vivienne Foundation, and of ‘homophobic bullying’ and ‘betraying’ her grandmother’s legacy

While she still works with the Foundation, she’s now planning to forge her own career away from the long shadow of her family legacy.

‘Everything people have done in my family is amazing,’ she said.

‘But I’m very much my own person, and I think through building my stronghold within myself, I’m just so excited to excel in my own career. It feels like a really freeing, exciting moment in so many ways.’