In this week’s HELLO! Cilla Black talks candidly about how she has bounced back after the death of her beloved husband and manager Bobby Willis two years ago - and how she intends to grow old disgracefully.

“I’ve never though of myself as particularly good-looking. Not with these teeth, no! But there have always been bits of me I’ve liked. Good legs - long, slim, not a stretch mark or thread vein to this day.

“Of course, I lost weight when Bobby died. I was a size 12 to 14, now I’m a size 8 or 9. Without even trying, it all fell off. It was stress, the shock of bereavement. But it’s stayed off and I’m a good eater.

“The odd thing about losing weight is that, for the first time in my life, I’ve acquired a bust. The weight dropped off everywhere but my chest. So all my life I’d lived with a bust that was smallish in proportion to the rest of me - and now I’m this slim creature with a big bust. And I hate it! It just gets in the way. I’d never contemplate showing it off, either…

“As I’ve got older, I’ve realised I have an in-built barometer for what I feel good in. Jeans, always. I’ve worn them since the 1960s. They’re what I feel most at home in. But short skirts? Never. My greatest fear is of being mutton dressed as lamb.”

To read more about Cilla Black in her own words, see this week’s HELLO!, on sale now.