More: Once a cover girl, always a cover girl. You make getting older look fab. What’s your secret?
Cheryl Tiegs: I did a lot of work with Deepak Chopra. He taught me how to focus on my inner beauty. The more I did that, the more I tended to forget the number. As for my other secrets, I drink a lot of water, get a lot of sleep, meditate, hike, lift weights twice a week with a trainer and eat well.

More: What is your definition of eating well?
CT: I don’t eat sweets, junk food, bread or pasta.

More: There must be something sinful you indulge in once in a while?
CT: French fries and popcorn are my downfall.

More: You say you don’t look at the number. Is it accurate to say your kids keep you young?
CT: When I had my son Zachary [now 20 years old], I thought, he is either going to make me very young or very old.

More: What is the verdict?
CT: He has kept me very young. Children bring such laughter and insight into your home. Life is fun with children.

More: You also became a new mom to twins [Jaden and Theo] at the age of 53.
CT: I choose not to talk about children when they are still under my care because this world is too precarious, and for their own safety.

More: When many people are thinking about retirement, you were rolling up your sleeves for a double dose of diaper duty.
CT: When I was raising my first son, Zach, I was in Santa Barbara, getting a divorce, living on my own, and had this toddler. My neighbor at the time was a 64-year-old woman who kept adopting these beautiful little girls from Russia. She had at least seven kids under her care. When I asked her if she ever got tired, she said, so sincerely, “No.” She immediately became such an inspiration to me. It was from that moment on I said age will never stop me from doing anything I want to do.

More: You recently made an appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice. What made you join a reality series?
CT: I watched that show for years. One day I said to myself, I can do that. I have built twelve companies, been on the cover of Time magazine three times, and with all of my accomplishments I can go on there, be on a team and do some good.

More: But you left after the first episode.
CT: I wanted to show America you can do something without being mean-spirited. However, that plan backfired because everyone else was mean-spirited. What was especially shocking for me was that about half an hour before we went to the boardroom we were having a deep conversation about our families, our love lives, our pain and sorrows. Then bam! we got into the boardroom and the claws came out. As I watched this unfold I said to myself, “This is not who I am”—so I left. Everyone was working against one another, and to me that was freaky!

More: Which charity were you playing for?
CT: The Farrah Fawcett Foundation, because Farrah was a very dear friend of mine.

More: I would think modeling is a cutthroat industry.
CT: Not when I was there. What happened to our society? When I was modeling, no one was that mean.

More: Really?
CT: There was one time in my early twenties when I was modeling when I gained a lot of weight. I ballooned up to 170 pounds because I was eating like I did as a teenager. I was not at a healthy weight for someone like me. Anyway, as a result, I was too big to wear the clothes. It was an editor who pulled me aside and politely said, “Cheryl, we have to ask you to go home.”