Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Businesswoman and fragrance creator known for founding an eponymous luxury scent and skincare brand.
On the island
Eight records
"I used to dance in my bedroom to this. And I think this is depicts my personality. I am someone that will always get in a boat and rock it."
Elton John and Luciano Pavarotti
"Every year I go to Montana to ride horses. You ride out on your horse all day, and as the sun's setting, you stand on a mountainside... and two hundred horses. They just run up to the mountain for the evening. And it's a moment that every time when I watch it says, I want to live my life like that."
"I've been married to him for twenty nine years, and he and I have built businesses together, traveled, had amazing adventures. And eighteen months ago, he fell desperately ill... And there was an incredible doctor who saved his life. And Gary had eight months crawling back to life, and he plays the guitar. And one afternoon I came in to the house and he was sitting on the terrace and he hadn't played his guitar for a very long time and he was playing this song."
"Well, I love this song because it's a dancey song, and I was going through all the songs, and Josh said to me, '... Can't have price tag with the price of your candles.' But if you listen to the words, it's not about price tag Josh. It's about creativity. And this song really speaks to me."
"I was thirty seven years old when I was diagnosed with breast cancer and a very, very aggressive form. And I was told that I should get my life in order, because they didn't know how long. And I remember flying to New York and meeting a man called Doctor Larry Norton, and for the next year I put my life in his hands, and I'd like to dedicate this song to him and his team... because you fixed me."
"And as an entrepreneur, I know what it is to climb a mountain. And this song is the voice of every entrepreneur I know that as they're climbing, there are moments where you want to quit and give in. And my advice is stand still, the storm pass, and carry on and get to your destination."
"I was made just recently an ambassador for creativity to represent our country. And I'm not going to listen to everyone that tells me I can't. I'm going to be that fast car, that rocket, and that moment that changes the world again."
One Moment in TimeFavourite
"I love this song so much. It's my wish for my life in twenty fifteen. I want to cross that finishing line, rather like this people did in the Olympics, when she sang this song, I want that gold medal, I want to do it again."
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:16How important a part do scents play in your life? Are you always sort of on the sniff?
"I think 'cause I'm dyslexic, my nose is like my paintbrush and it's my means of communication. So I look at colour in fragrance. I look at everything revolves back to these little ingredients that are in my head, and I piece together. And it's a game I think I play mentally with myself, but my nose is the thing that governs all my emotions, without a doubt."
Presenter asks
8:59How old were you when you were diagnosed as dyslexic?
"Not for a long time, not for a really long time at school. So I couldn't tell my left from my right. I still can't tell from my left from my right actually. And I couldn't tell the time until I was about 13, 14. And even now, if somebody asks me the time and I look at a clock, it just takes me a few seconds to register where it is. So it wasn't really diagnosed, and I really, really struggled, which is why I came out of school with no qualifications at all."
Presenter asks
21:56How did you end up at [Memorial] Sloan Kettering [cancer center]?
"I came home that night. It was the night of the Serpentine party... And I was dressed, ready to go to the party, and I thought the lump in my breast was a cyst, and it wasn't. And I remember coming home that night knowing that I had a very, very aggressive form of breast cancer, and I picked up the phone and spoke to the amazing Evelyn Lauder, who was climbing a mountain at the time, and she found a phone and called me. And I said, 'I've got cancer, Evelyn' and she said, 'Honey, remember you make lemonade from lemons' and I was on a plane to New York within twenty four hours."
The keepsakes
The luxury
Presenter asks
23:13How did you cope with your son being so young [when you had cancer]?
"I felt very nauseous. When I was pregnant I had that awful thing of hyperemesis as well... So I lost a lot of weight. I obviously lost all my hair. And I just felt I was, I'd lost half my body as well. I felt like I was stripped of this person of who I was. I didn't know who I was any more. And I was just going through the day-to-day routine, and I couldn't create fragrance... I can't go anywhere near those smells. And I just couldn't do it. I could not create fragrance. And I had this continual metallic taste and metallic smell in my nose. And it was the first time in my life that I wasn't able to smell."
Presenter asks
26:16For somebody whose whole life had been about [the cosmetics industry], how on earth did you cope with the non-competition clause [that prevented you working in it]?
"That's my one regret. Yes. Actually, five years as well, it was a long, long time. Five years, I wasn't allowed to endorse anything... And I got to the point where I couldn't even walk through a cosmetic floor, not because I was prevented, but the emotional torment I would put myself through... I'm not good at a lot of things in life. I can't drive, I can't swim. I can't tell the time properly all the time, but I can create fragrance. And I got to the point, I was making a TV show with BBC One called High Street Dreams... And I was standing in a garden shed filling chili sauce into bottles. And life just said to me, 'It's time to go back and try again.'"
Presenter asks
28:09When you pass the [old] Jo Malone stores now, what does it feel like? They're not yours anymore.
"You have two children who you love equally. Jo Malone was who I was as a young woman. Jo Loves is your brand. Jo Loves is who I am now. And if I hadn't built Jo Malone and I hadn't sold it, I wouldn't be here right now living this unbelievable, creative, entrepreneurial journey."
“"I do remember sitting in my bedroom and looking out the window and thinking, I don't want to live my life like this. I want to get myself out of here. I wanted to be self sufficient even from a very, very, very young age."”
“"Gary was the was the physical backbone to everything. He was the one that got in the van and drove round for forty eight hours round the country delivering all the bottles and the oils wherever they needed to be. He was the one that found the factories and sat in the meetings while I said, 'That's not how you do it. It doesn't smell right.'"”
“"I felt I was stripped of this person of who I was. I didn't know who I was any more. And I was just going through the day-to-day routine, and I couldn't create fragrance... I can't go anywhere near those smells."”
“"It's no one's responsibility but yours to make your business work. Surround yourself with people that believe you can, not you can't. And you need to fail as well as succeed. Great business people are not born, they're made."”
“"I celebrate life every Friday. And I think so often in life we fight so hard for what we want and we forget to take it and enjoy the moment and say, 'Well done. I'm still here.'"”