Carol Smillie is trying to convince me that she’s not the perfect specimen of womanhood that her regular primetime TV appearances may lead us to conclude she is.

The popular Changing Rooms presenter turns 40 two days before Christmas and, although she insists she’s not in the least bit perturbed by the fact – “You cant do anything about it so there’s no point in worrying” – she concedes that some areas of her body have withstood the years better than others.

“The legs have deteriorated,” she says matter-of-factly – although, as our photographs show, she has little to worry about. “I found some old modelling shots of myself draped over a tyre in a black bodysuit and my husband Alex looking longingly at them and said, “I remember when you used to look like that!”

The famous smile is, she confirms, genuine, not a single veneer in evidence – “If I had bad teeth I would absolutely have them done” – though she does confide that her front tooth is capped as a result of a fall at the age of seven.

To see the stunning photos of Carol and to read more about the charismatic presenter see this week’s HELLO! magazine, on sale now.