‘There’s more to life than worrying about what people think’

Kerr’s trajectory into mega-stardom is quite a feat. Aged just 13, she won a modelling competition in Australia’s Dollymagazine and, after several years spent juggling modelling assignments with schoolwork, she graduated and moved to New York, swiftly signing with Next Management in 2004. Her first big break came in the form of a contract with Maybelline New York in 2004; by 2007 – the same year she met actor Orlando Bloom – Kerr had hit the big time, becoming a Victoria’s Secret Angel and international supermodel. Bloom and Kerr married three years later, with son Flynn arriving in 2011. By 2013, however, the pair announced their separation and subsequent divorce. Kerr is unfailingly honest about that period. “When Orlando and I separated, I went through a very dark phase emotionally that hit me out of nowhere, because I’m a naturally happy person, ” she says. “I don’t know what happened. At first we’d both been like, ‘OK, this is the right thing’, but all of a sudden it hits you and I went into this kind of depression for a year. It was really hard to get out of that.”

It’s difficult to picture Kerr as anything but upbeat – how did she cope during that time? “It definitely helped being as consistent as I could be with my routine and taking every day as it comes, ” she says. Aromatherapy, essential oils, rose-quartz crystals, yoga and meditation helped, too, she adds, but ultimately it was just time and space that allowed her to move past it. “There’s no shortcut, ” she says. “Just like grieving when someone dies, there’s a process and you have to go through those different emotions. Then you come to a point where there’s more acceptance... It’s just part of being human.”