Joanna Lumley: I used to be a monster

Joanna Lumley was a "spotty monster" during her youth.

The 70-year-old model and actress is known for her enviable good looks, but has admitted she has never considered herself to be beautiful.

She said: "I wasn’t good-looking. I was a spotty monster. I’ve never thought of myself as remotely beautiful.

"I knew I could be a model because I was tall with even features and good with make-up. Models are never actually beautiful, they are just long and photogenic."

Joanna also rubbished the idea that she was ever a sex symbol, insisting she never saw herself in that context.

She told the Mail on Sunday newspaper: "You can’t be sexy if you don’t think you are sexy. The French producers of ‘The New Avengers’ didn’t think I was sexy enough to be Purdey. They wanted Linda Thorson (who played Tara King in the original ‘Avengers’). Being sexy has never been anything to me.

"I mean, who actually is sexy? Is Kim Kardashian sexy because she poses with very few clothes? Do people find that sexy? It’s something I don’t even really think about."

Meanwhile, Joanna also revealed her opposition to social media, saying it has an unhealthy influence on young people.

She reflected: "The real problem for kids is social media. They walk around with their harming machines [mobile phones], harming each other with nasty comments. I’m absolutely against social media. I don’t do any of it.

"I use email and that’s it. The rest of it is a huge problem with enormous repercussions we are storing up for the future. Being young is terribly stressful today and social media is a huge part of that stress. I believe in actually speaking to people, writing letters, reading books. Doing things, not just sitting behind a computer – utterly deadening."