THE LIFE OF A SUPERMODEL — STUDIO 54 ERA

The life of a supermodel during the Studio 54 era is defined by fast fame, high pressure, and constant reinvention.

This episode features Carol Alt, tracing what it was really like to rise in the modeling world during one of its most iconic eras. From early ambition and unexpected breaks into Vogue to the reality of instant visibility, Carol shares how quickly life shifted once her career took off.

The conversation dives into the Studio 54 era energy, where fashion, nightlife, and celebrity culture collided. She reflects on Sports Illustrated moments, shifting public identity, and how models were shaped by images, contracts, and constant demand for reinvention.

Beyond fame, the discussion moves into health and personal transformation. Carol opens up about the turning point that changed how she viewed food, the question that reframed her habits, and her early move into raw food and nutrition focused living long before it became mainstream.

Key themes from the episode:

•  Life inside the Studio 54 era fashion world 
•  How supermodels built careers in a high pressure industry 
•  Fame, identity, and being defined by images 
•  Early career reinvention through business and media 
•  Health transformation and lifestyle change before wellness trends 

Listen for a clear look at the real life of a supermodel during the Studio 54 era and what it took to evolve beyond it.

Transcript

Welcome And A Friendship Flashback

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hi, I'm Kim Alexis. Today in Paris, Patrick Kelly is showing his collection of spring clothes. Hi, I'm Kim Alexis with your ticket to adventure. I'm Kim Alexis, and I'm here in New York City. Got a great show coming up for you, so stay tuned. So, Carol Alt, you are one of my oldest friends, and we have known each other since I'm a couple months older than you. Um, but I think you were just 18 or 19. 18.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

It was my first day, first day of the job, and they sent me and you were in the studio shooting with Alex Chateland.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yes, yeah. And I remember you walking up to me and you said, Yeah, I'm with John. And you're like, I I heard that, you know, John told me I'm supposed to ask you how to lose weight. And I said, Tell John to go blank himself.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yeah, you did. I was like, whoops, I guess that was the wrong thing. I thought, you know, he's telling me to ask you. So yeah, no, I had to lose 50 pounds, so I was I was looking for help for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Well, you were in your little army fatigues. You've definitely come a long way since then. So, and you thought you wanted to, you were in the ROTC, but you also thought you wanted to be a lawyer, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Uh well, I was studying

ROTC Plans And The Modeling Pivot

SPEAKER_01 1:20

law through the Army ROTC plan. Yeah. So I had a a scholar. Well, I was waiting on a scholarship. So really what I was doing is I was basically taking a summer job in case I didn't get the scholarship. Right. Um, because I was already in law school. I I graduate, I like I went into school like a year early, basically. So I was younger than everybody else in the class. So by the time I was 18, I was already through my first year of college, and I was studying at Hofstra at the new school. So I was already studying law. But I had tried once before, my father said, Oh, you should do the Miss Teen USA. And I'm I Kim, you know me, I'm a tan boy more than I am a beauty puss. So, you know, I was much happier going for the army, you know, the the army thing. So um, yeah, that's what happened. I went, I went to the army and I was waiting for the scholarship. You know, back then it didn't really, you know, look to women to join the army. So it was a much higher bar for us. And ultimately that summer I got it, but you know, John came to me and said what he said, which made me think, yeah, maybe I should pursue this for a little bit. So I put the scholarship on waiver for a year and then you know continued with modeling.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Yeah, that's it's amazing, though, how both of us just literally turned and from where we thought we were gonna be, we both just kind of pivoted and said, Okay, well, I was a tomboy, you were a tomboy. Let's just give this high fashion a try. I mean, it was totally not us.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

It was totally not me at all. I don't know why this keeps sliding down. It was totally not me at all. I know you were you were uh a swim champion. I mean, I was playing lacrosse and basketball and you know, waitressing. Thought I was gonna go into the army to become a JAG, a judge advocate general, which is the Army lawyers. And uh yeah, I think really what happened for me was uh, you know, five five months in, and by August, I had been offered the Lancomb contract. Thank you, Patrick de Marchelier. And Job was like, you can't go back to school.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Yeah, I know. So um take me through you, your your mindset. So, how long did it take you to go from, okay, let's put this on the shelf and let's try modeling full-time?

SPEAKER_01 3:44

It was really harrowing for me, Kim, because I had promised my mother I would go back to school. So that, you know, always keeping a promise was always on my mind, of course. Um, and I certainly didn't expect to, you know, get a cover my first day and and go, you know, full on into this as a career. This was for me a summer job that was, by the way, supplementing my waitressing. Yeah. You know, I was on the cover of Vogue, and my the guys who owned the restaurant I was working at said, you know, you kind of got to quit your night job and go for this other thing, you know? And I was like, you know, I didn't want to give up my waitressing job because it took so much to get it. And of course, you know, the fact that I was uh, you know, awarded the scholarship was it was it was a terrifying decision. What if this was just a fluke? What if I just got this one thing and then and then I don't have a career? What if I just got you know long comb and then that's it, and you're done in a year or two years, whereas you know, being a lawyer in in the army is lifetime. It's a lifetime career and only gets better as you go. And my father's like, you know, just remember it's it's by 25, you're done. So you can only wear one pair of pants at a time, one pair of shoes at a time. Don't spend your money on all this stuff, save your money. And um, you know, when you're done, then you can pay for your own college education. Um, and you know, my father and mother had said, listen, as long as you go to college, we'll pay for it. And my father was a fire chief in the South Bronx, for heaven's sake. He had four kids in college basically at the same time. Right. So that that's why I went for the scholarship. And uh, you know, that's why I went for a summer job, two summer jobs, waitressing and modeling, because I I understood this and I just figured whatever I make, so it was a huge decision that I've got a scholarship and could really help my parents out with my college education. Um, but then they came and they said, Listen, you can put this on on waiver for a year. It was like the weight of the world fell off me. I went, oh. And then the following year, you know, I I was like, you know what? I'm gonna give this to somebody who needs it. And that would that was really how the decision went. And you know, my mom still occasionally goes, like, why don't you go back to school?

SPEAKER_00 6:11

So would you you would you entertain that now at say 65, going back to school?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

You know what the thing is, Kim, I think after being 50 years in this business, 47 years in this business, yeah, and and reading all my contracts and uh, you know, I I probably could teach, well, I've taught at the at the Brooklyn Law School uh for several seasons. I taught a class, not a full class. I would go in for a day and I would lecture um as a guest lecturer for a friend of mine. You know, I I think I could I could probably teach the class.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Right. I I I love that. So you've definitely done a million different things. So you and I

Sports Illustrated Fame And Cover Chaos

SPEAKER_00 6:50

worked together for years. Uh you started 79, correct? Yep. 78. You started 79, and you and I had parallel careers. Uh, sometimes we would work together, most of the time we didn't talk about our first sports illustrated and you getting the cover versus me.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Oh, so you know, uh I arrived in in Nairobi and then Kenya, and you had just left. And I was so excited to go there and see you because you every time you know this, when you hit a certain echelon in the modeling industry, you kind of worked pretty much alone.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Or you'd have one day with another girl, but it was really, you were really very much a loner. It wasn't like we had cell phones, I could call you or Julie, or you know, I it was it was not like that at all. If you saw each other, it was an occasional job together. So, you know, I the year before I had shot with Kelly on location, freezing her butts off in Florida for Sports Illustrated. And then I was so excited because I thought you're gonna be there. And uh Julie went, oh no, no, well, uh Kim just left. And I was like, ah, you know, and then I I worked uh I worked with um uh Clarissa, actually Chris Morris, uh Calissa Clarissa Clarissa, and um for a couple days, and then I was on my own. So it was it was a little heartbreaking that I had missed you.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

So that's where I met my first husband, actually. So I wasn't gonna go there. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Yes. I had just worked with your ex-boyfriend at the time and uh for the cover of Spanish Bazaar.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Harper's Bazaar, uh, Jeff. Is that right?

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Somebody just asked me his name too, because they sent me some covers and said, could you tell me who the photographers were? And I just I said, you know, I just know the guy's name was Jeff. I'm not even sure I knew Jeff's last name. Anyway, no, you know, you one day in a studio with somebody. I'm not calling him by his last name. It's not the locker room at the you know, Madison Square Garden. So anyway, um what I think what happened was is I was in Paris. I was supposed to go back to London, and I get a phone call from the agency, which was very, you know, kind of strange phone call, message at the hotel, you have to call, you have to you have to take the Concord back tomorrow. And I'm like to New York? And they're like, yes, just just for the morning, then you can fly back to London. And I'm like, you know, in the afternoon, I'm like, because I have to have a job in London. I'm like, uh Okay. But they wouldn't tell me why.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

So yeah, so I I flew to New York, got off the plane, went straight to Good Morning America. I was expecting to see all the girls there. And when I got to the green room, they said, um, no, no, it's just you. I was like, oh my God, like I got goosebumps. I was like, oh my god. And and they wouldn't unveil the cover, so I didn't even see it until I was actually on air. And the odd thing was, is that there was so much against that cover being the cover. First of all, you had the most beautiful gatefold, which is what they wanted. They wanted gatefold, which is you know, the second page flipping out, so you have basically a poster in a suit on this beautiful stone wall, your whole body, your long legs, your blonde hair. And at the last minute, they changed. And then they changed to a cover that has the same suit as Christy Brinkley on the cover of Life magazine. Right. And by the way, Christy looked like Christy looked better. She was a little more curvy, she filled it out a little more. I look like a little boy, uh, you know, flat-chested, skinny. I was 115 pounds. Um, and you know, there's Christy on the cover of Life magazine in the same dang suit. So I actually have here in the other room that um, you remember Frank? He was a writer for Sports Illustrated?

SPEAKER_00 11:05

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Anyway, I anyway, there was this wonderful writer for Sports Illustrated named Frank, and he searched me out at a hockey game because I was married, of course, to Ron Greshner of the New York Rangers, and he said, I have something for you. And he handed me this framed picture of that cover with a blue suit.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Oh my gosh, you had to walk around Madison Square Garden with a no, I left it in the locker room.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

It was, you know, I put it by Ronnie Ronnie's doll. Um but it was just crazy because they made the suit blue, thinking they could make it different than Christy, and then they just decided we're just gonna go with. I mean, everything was against that cover, and I I I personally thought you I saw your cover, I thought it was spectacular.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

But I heard that it was they they it was down to three choices. Two of them were me, one of them was you, and then they picked yours. I'm like, darn.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

So I I I didn't hear that. I think you told me that, but I I didn't hear that. But yeah, I don't know. But I saw the one that they had chosen of yours.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Anyways, it was just beautiful, anyways.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Anyways, but that was a good launching pad for you um and me. I mean, it was how we literally got to be known by our names, number one. And also by half of the population, which I happen to be male. So, you know, we went from just fashion to more sports and and athleticism. And it was a for you, it's one of the things where they say it helped really make your name known.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yeah, I think I I had a little bit of a perfect storm with that because um after Lancombe let me go, because they they took uh they took um okay Isabella Isabella or Selena, yes. She was Hollywood royalty, so you know I was the daughter of a fireman from uh the South Bronx, like you know, who are you gonna choose? So they took Isab, you know, Isabella, and then immediately CoverGirl picked me up at kind of the same time, around that same time that I was working with Sports Illustrated. So CoverGirl used your name as well, which was which was really helpful. And of course, you know, I was with Ron Ronnie, and uh, you know, Sports Illustrated, George Plimpton wrote a story about me being up in the blues and the the the building chanting, and it always scared me when they did that.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

But okay, it was kind of a perfect storm. You can't just say that. So, all right, for the audience, Carol was married to Ron Greshner, who was a defenseman for the New York Rangers. I was married at this point now with my second husband to Ron Duguet, who is a forward in the New York Rangers. And Carol, when she talks about our Rons, it's your Ronnie, my Ronnie, right? Still. All right. And she would invite me to hockey games. I remember going seven months pregnant with Bobby, and Carol would walk down in these beautiful little hot mini skirts with beautiful high heels, and the whole Madison Square Garden would count shout, Carol, Carol. And then I come down behind her like huge pregnant. I remember you were just so glamorous and gorgeous, and here I was like just bursting with baby.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Well, here's the weird thing, okay. So just so you know where my mindset was when they were doing that, there were two chants that had the same rhythm. One was Carol, Carol, and they would stop only when I stood up and waved at them. However, the other chant was which was when they didn't like what a ref called. And since I sat behind the glass, I couldn't hear the difference. So I'd be like, are they seeing Carol? I'd say seriously. I was afraid to go there, you chant the asshole, and I stand up and wave, you know.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

You're so funny. Anyways, those were definitely yeah, days were you and you are every time I'd come into New York, because at this point I'm living in Florida or out in California with Ron. I mean, there we have so much history, but I was always living somewhere else besides New York. And when I'd come in, you would always definitely take

Posters, Auditions, And Becoming An Actress

SPEAKER_00 15:20

care of me. Um, how did you transfer from your fabulous modeling career? How did you get in? It's acting that you did next. Is that what you transitioned into?

SPEAKER_01 15:32

I was a little bit of an entrepreneur in between. I realized um I had a little bit of momentum and I was coming on 25 and I was worried that my career was going to be over, like my father said. So I started looking for other things to do that would prolong my career because I loved what I was doing. I'm a, you know, crazy people person. I like being in studios. I like every day is different. Um, I like the challenge, uh, you know. So um I created the posters uh that I did. I did five posters. Um, I created those posters because I was like, I need, I need, you know, I was starting to do nothing against brides and nothing against Barbara, who always booked me, God bless her. She was always booking me. But, you know, you start to see the vogues and the harpers bazaar, and then they start turning into, you know, brides and, you know, and there's there's echelons in the in the modeling industry, vogue being the top. And when you start falling off the other side of the mountain, I didn't want to stay at the party too long. But I start so I did the posters and the calendars and the exercise videos, um, which you know I was doing in 1983, because I was trying to, I didn't think of it as a cottage industry for every model that came along, which it ended up being, you know, but it had nothing to do with me. I just had this idea and then Monique took it and ran. But I just wanted to stay in the industry a little bit longer. In 1985, I think like in January 85, uh, we had attached to the agency, if you remember, Davy and Littlefield worked for um worked for an acting company. And um they would send us do you remember? It and they would send us out on her. Yeah, so they would send us out on readings and auditions, and half the time we didn't get the full script, we just had sides. Like I remember reading for Cocoon, I had no idea she was an alien because I didn't have the script, I just had a side, you know. But I read for Bob Fosse, and Bob Fossey directed me, directed me several different ways, and then I went home, but I wasn't even home yet. I was walking down the street on Park Avenue, and I and um I don't know how I think I ran into one of our agents, and she was like, We were looking for you, we were looking for you. I'm like, what do you mean? They want to know if you'll go to California for five months. I mean, this was a big decision. I was making it.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Now, this is way before cell phones.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Yeah, yeah. So the agent went to they they had called her, I hadn't even left the building. Bob Fossey wanted to change Sweet Charity a little bit because it had been done so many times. The Swedish girl, this part of the Swedish girl, was um supposed, he wanted to make it more New York. Ultimately, it didn't work. Not for Bob, not for me. Um, but I I did my best with it. But I was, you know, I was hired for five months to to go to LA and and do this. So um I realized, you know, really how much I had to Yeah, what went through your mind then?

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Because you said you were married. So what made you decide to try something new?

SPEAKER_01 18:49

I, you know, I talked to Ronnie for, you know, first of all, I'm like, I got this job five months. He goes, you got to go do it. And I, you know, I'll hold down the fort. And you know, he was on the road. I, you know, I I I go back in my brain and I go, like, what do we do with the cats? Like, how do we see people go on the road sometimes? You know, like the cats were never neglected, they were always taken very good care of, but like I don't remember, or I don't remember the intricacies of life because I was working so much. I mean, sometimes 18 hours a day, you work till two o'clock in the morning with Chris von Wagenheim for Vogue, and then you're up at six for a class, you know? So it was it was a I you know I wouldn't want to go back. I I don't know if I could do that again. But it, you know, at the time you didn't even think about it, you just did what you had to do. So, so I went to LA. Really, uh, you know, Rodney, Ronnie had a lot to do with that too. He was like, you know, do you want to do this and go ahead? And and so I did. And I stayed with a friend of ours, you know, at his apartment. So Ronnie felt comfortable. When he came out, he stayed at the guy, you know, my friend left the apartment and Ronnie stayed. So, you know, I had it set up pretty good. But, you know, of course it was a big chunk out of my earnings because that was the highest year ever. I would have hit my height of of earnings that year, but I opted to, you know, take this chance. And and by the way, it it hurt me in the end because it wasn't the right part. Leaving it Swedish is what he did for Broadway. And, you know, I had to basically dig myself out of a hole. So when I came out of um that, I started modeling again, and then I got an offer from Italy. And I was like, you know what? I don't want to do any movies. I really need to study more if I'm gonna do this, and and I don't want to go in for an audition. They said, no, this is no audition, this is an offer. And it turned out that the director, Carlo Vanzino, who ended up being a very good friend of mine and working with me on several films, he had gone into a modeling agency and said, I want, you know, any one of these girls will do for my next project. And she looked at the pictures and she started laughing at him. And he goes, What are you laughing at? What's the matter? She goes, Carlo, they're all the same girl. He goes, Well, if she could do that in photos, yeah, can you imagine what she could do on the screen? Right. And by the way, my first week with him, my first day with him was like I wanted to shoot myself. Why? It was like it was horrible. I was, I mean, I couldn't remember my lines. The girl that the girl I was working with, her husband had been shot by another model. She was very angry and bitter. I was a little, you know, taken aback by the whole thing. And I walked out of the scene and I looked at my coach and I said, I can't believe I have two weeks for this. Years later, by the way, by the end of the movie, he offered me my, you know, my my first 40 years, which was me. It was like, you know, three and a half months just of this woman's life going from 15 to 40. And uh the every character was me. So I I ended up, I guess, doing a pretty good job because he offered me this other role. But um years later, he said to me, I never. Told you this, but when I got off the set after that scene, I said, I can't believe I have two more weeks of this with her.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

You both said that. Oh, funny.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

We both said the same thing, yeah. But I brought a coach with me, so you know, we worked very hard.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

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SPEAKER_01 22:59

Yeah, you know, some films they go like, oh, I worked with you on Maddie and the Hollow Fox universe. And I'm like, wow, I didn't even remember I did that movie. I mean, I was just movie after movie after movie. And some of the movies were, you know, eight like Anna Karinina was an eight-part miniseries. That's like doing eight films, or at least today, four films, you know, two hours each. It was, it was, you know, it was, and I spent a year in Africa on a 12, uh, a 12, two hour, no, it was yeah, 12, two-hour. It was called a limited series. It was 12 two-hour parts. So it was like 24 hours of film. Oh, you were. So yeah, you know, I loved it. I loved it. Yeah, and you were hard worker. Well, you know, it doesn't feel like work when you love what you're doing. I just, I just really, I loved the challenge. I loved creating characters, I loved being anybody and anything that I could be. You know, I I just I just loved, loved the the happiest I am, Kimmy, is when I'm on the set. It just is really the happiest I am.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Right, right. Hey, when did you meet your manager? When did you meet Scott?

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Well, I had another manager first. So my first manager who did the posters, the calendar, and the exercise video was named Steve Gutstein. And Steve Gutstein was actually assistant district attorney of New York.

unknown 24:21

I actually remember him.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

He was I remember yeah, he was a friend of Ronnie's. And, you know, when I wanted to do so, here's what happened with the posters. So when I approached John about doing the posters, Johnete.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

John Casablanca's from Elite. We went to lunch at La Camilla up on 57th Street, which was right down the street from the agency, him and Monique Pillar, who is vice president of Elite. And I said to John, I'd like to do a poster. And he went, No, no, no, no, I'm not going to do posters. Are you crazy? I um I almost lost Kim Alexis. I lost Christy Brinkley. And he went, I was like, John, he goes, they thought I made too much money. I said, John, if you're making too much money, I'm making nine times that money. I said, I'd be okay with that, you know, because he took 10%. So, you know, he he he threw his card on the table, his credit card on the table for lunch. He was always a gentleman, and he left. And I turned to Monique, I said, Well, how do I do this? She goes, Carole, you have to hire a manager. I'm like, a manager? Like, where am I gonna find a manager? So I went to Ronnie's best friend, Steve Guttstein, and you know, Steve and Kitty, and they were our friends. And I said, Steve, do you think you could handle this for me? So he called up this guy named Gary Wishard, and Gary Richard owned Protect Management. Protect Management was doing the boss. Do you remember the Boz, the football player, the big, you know, with the he had like that rooster hair, and he was this big famous guy in the moment he had done a poster. So so we we, you know, we worked backwards and tracked it down. And then I said to Monique, who do you think should shoot it? She said, Marco Glaviano. I got my girlfriend Denise Walsh to style it, and we we shot like three or four different kinds with Marco, and then Marco ended up shooting everybody's. I made a cottage industry for Marco. He ended up shooting every girl who hit any kind of you know echelon in in modeling. Uh Marco shot her for a poster. Right. So, yeah, it worked out really well for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Yeah. Well, and then you met Scott, your current manager that you've had forever, I think.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Right. So, you know, the thing was is back then it was a completely different time for models at that point because models didn't act and actors didn't model. And the actors went to like Japan to do commercials and make money outside of acting. So, you know, they did they, it just it was just not a moment for actors, you know, for models to become actors. So nobody wanted to work with me. I couldn't get an agent, I couldn't get a manager. And then one day I had this hairdresser friend, his name was Steve, and he said, You need to meet my friend Scott.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Right.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

I said, Okay. So I went into Scott's office. He was, they were doing, you know, Helen Reddy and Jim Brolin, and you know, he had it was this major, major, like 15 offices and 20 people working there. And uh, and and I walked in and you know, we just hit it off. And I remember him saying to me, because it was the day of the OJ um verdict, and I was down in Manhattan Beach, and he called me at the the place I was staying, and he said, if this verdict is guilty, do not come into town. Right. And I I thought, why? What do you mean? He goes, it could get dangerous, and if it's not guilty, come into town. So I thought, wow, Cam, when did anybody care about what kind of danger they were sending us into? It wasn't that they didn't care, but they were agents, you know, they weren't out in the field. I mean, we were traveling by ourselves at 18 years old to like Cape Town, South Africa.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Yes, everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Yeah, these crazy, crazy places. Who knew Cape Town, South Africa at that point had like the highest murder caper per rate? You know, I was out jogging on the shore.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

Yes, I know how many times we were protected from God knows what in foreign countries, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Yes, yeah, because you know, we traveled, we traveled alone. You get on a plane, you go. You know, somebody picks you up at this, or you get into a cab. I mean, any I look, I look at back at that and I'm like, anything could have happened.

A Health Scare And Food Truths

SPEAKER_01 28:40

We were so blessed, I gotta tell you, because anything could have happened. And it it didn't. We survived.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

Yes, exactly. So then you started a wellness journey.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Yeah, you know, um that's so hard to talk about because you know, I I I had issues at 29, health issues. I mean, I had health issues my whole life, let's face it. Um, I had allergies as a kid, I would rupture my stomach coughing, everything made me cough. And, you know, you know, we we didn't have the information then that we ended up having now. But during my journey, I met an amazing, amazing doctor named Dr. Timothy Brantley. And I met him through my friend named uh Steve Cantor. Steve's father, Paul Cantor, was at one point uh, you know, a financial advisor. And I ran into Steve, and he was doing movies and documentaries, and he he's very successful. And I met him at the unzipped party, and he called me one day. He said, you know, you gotta meet this guy. He's like, it'll it'll change the way you look at food. It'll you won't be able to watch your friends eat without, you know, like having a heart attack. He says, like, you really should speak to this guy. And I'm like, I don't want to know anybody who comes through the studio because you know as well as I do, Kim, any accountant that came through one girl ended up wiping all the girls out because they would pass the name on and everybody would go to him and he'd take everybody for a ride. So I was always afraid of that studio pipeline. But I had been praying. I had been praying. I said, you know, I don't feel good. I was doing a job, I didn't look good. I I I literally escaped from the job and it had my name on. It was Carol Alton Friends, and everybody looked better than me. Everybody was feeling better than me, projecting better than me. And I went back to LA really depressed, and I just started praying. I was like, something's happening, you know, let me know what it is, whatever it is, whatever you need me to do, tell me.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

The next minute I got a phone call from Wow, that was a fast prayer answer. Oh no, it was fast because I remember my father dying, saying to me, you know, Carol Ann, I I should have known something was wrong when I didn't want to go to work. And here I was hiding. I'm like, there's something wrong.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Whatever it is, you've given me a little bit of celebrity. I know I could use it for good. Please let me know.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

And Steve called and he's like, Oh, you talked to this guy. And I'm like, rolling my eyes. Okay, yeah. Uh-huh. I pretended to take down his number, and then I hung up. And a little voice, yeah, I know, I was a schmuck, a little voice inside of me said, Hey, you know, you've tried everything. You've been asking for help, and now you throw this away. Fortunately, it was a really easy number to remember. So I called, and it was it was Timothy, and he said to me, Not how can I help you? What ails you? He said, What do you eat? I told him how horrible my diet was. He started to laugh and he said, Well, I'm surprised you know this, this, this, this, the, the my top six Hitlers.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Oh, yeah. I went immediately to see him. I never looked back.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

Yeah, finished coffee for breakfast.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

Yeah. Uh close Scotch coffee. Oh. I was allergic to I was allergic to Irish, whatever, you know, the whatever they put in the Irish rye or barley, whatever it was. I was allergic to it. So I went to Scotch. Yeah. Well, but you, you know, you people have to remember that we were traveling all the time. We never knew what time zone you were on.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

So I would wake up in the street.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Right. I would wake up in the morning on my days off and I would have a Scotch coffee and whipped cream. And when I was working, believe it or not, I would have, you know, pizza bread and and cappuccino. That would be my breakfast. And in France, that was Italy. In France, I'd have a cappuccino and a coffee. And the doctor's like, it's the same thing. It's sugar and caffeine. So what difference does it make, you know? So yeah, I really had to come, you know, dig myself out of a very big hole because, you know, first of all, I was addicted to coffee. Second of all, I wanted my scotch in the morning. I love my whipped cream, you know. So I really had to get myself, you know, back back on track again and um, you know, completely swing from this way to that way. And it, you know, Timothy took me through it. He took me like I uh when I started with Timothy, I couldn't even go you know, without something to eat every couple of hours. And I fasted seven days with him after two, you know, two months of working and rebuilding my body. I mean, he really How old were you?

SPEAKER_00 33:37

How old were you during that?

SPEAKER_01 33:39

I was 1996. So I was 30 35.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Like I wish I had known the thing like he started talking and the universe opened up. I knew the information that he was giving to me was divine information. That this is the way the body works, this is what it's supposed to do, and this is how you're supposed to take care of it. Right. There was just no question. You know, for me, there was no turning back. And believe me, I've sat at dinners with renal doctors who were like taking me through the coals because I was some stupid model. But hey, you know what? I rebuilt my body and and I was on the verge of death, and I'm back. So you can't knock me off of my pedestal. I'm gonna be an orator on this, I'm gonna be screaming this from the mountaintops. If it changes one life, it changes one life. And, you know, I I've had you know several friends who had breast cancer who, you know, I gave the information to. Um, you know, and my my battle is daily. You know, I called you a couple weeks ago and asked you to pray for me. You know, my battle is daily, and it I know it is, so I stay on the straight and narrow, but you know, I've had people who wrote me an email saying, hey, you sat at me at lunch at the library at Bryant Park and you started talking about this stuff, and I really didn't listen, but now I've got this issue, and you and then you know, thank you so much. I went back on what you said, and you know, can you fill in a couple of you know, and I I answer anybody who who goes to the trouble of finding my email. Uh I I answer everybody because that's my duty, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:23

That's my paying it forward. You've not even done that, but look, I got one of your books.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

Which one?

SPEAKER_00 35:31

The that's easy, sexy way. That's your third, I think, right?

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Uh uh yeah, that was the third one.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Yeah, yeah. So you uh Carol was very big on raw food, and that was a big part of your journey. Um, and your protocol of Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

But you know, Kim, there's so much more than just like raw food. When I started writing my first book, people were like, What's vegan? What's gluten-free? You know, so I was of just a little pebble, but you know, now there are people making bigger waves, and you know, it's just so gra because I feel like the OG, OG of better eating, you know, that it was it was nowhere when when you know you and I started talking about this. It was nowhere, right? Nobody knew what these things were. These were foreign terms to people, and now you know there's so many companies making gluten-free and uh everything.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

We didn't have health food stores back then. I remember living in Westchester because of you, and you you got me the agent, right? The real estate agent, and I ended up renting a house up in Westchester, and I would drive up to Connecticut an hour to go to a health food store with my kids and load the cars. Is that the fountain of youth? I don't remember the name of it. Well, I think it was. Yeah, it was the fountain of youth up in Connecticut. Yeah, there was only one. I loved that place, anyways. I mean, we had to go there to stock our shelves, and I would take the boys and go up every couple of like every month or so or every three weeks, spend 600 bucks on all sorts of stuff that you could not find any, even in the city, in New York City, you couldn't find it now.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Well, there were a couple places. Uh, there was a couple of places. There's um uh you know, at that at that point there was integral yoga. So they had a small little store next door for the people who came and worked out and did yoga. They had a that, you know, there were a couple of really small places you had to really know where to find it. But I was so grateful that that, you know, by the time I was writing my books, I was able to put people like, you know, pure food and wine. Granted, she became bad vegan, but pure food and wine and quintessence and banama bonobos and all, you know, caravan of dreams, all of these amazing places that were making raw food. But I I think it was more just trying to get people to understand that processed food had so many chemicals, so many preservatives, you know, it had so many hidden fats, you know, cooked oils and really bad things, and that you could have things that were exactly the same, tasted just as good and were just as gratifying, that were healthy and it was easy to do. You know, really that was what the message was.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

You blew my mind once because when I was first modeling, I would have a diet Pepsi and a brutin. And I remember you saying, Kimmy, do you know how many calories are in a brin? I'm like, no. And you're like 450 to 500. I'm like, I remember that. It was like years. That's my whole day's calorie count. I know I it just killed me. I'm like, oh my gosh, you just took away what I really liked eating. I thought it was being so good. I know it's scary what people think is good. Well, and and because the business we were in, it taught us to really preserve and to find things other people might not find of how to stay younger. And I remember doing facials when I was 18. I mean, can you imagine 18-year-old skin and we were doing facials? Like we needed it.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

So I had my nails put on every time I had to go work for Lancome. I had these long claws. I was like, ah, I'm so not a girl. I would break them by the time I got to work.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

Yes, exactly. Exactly. I know I have I have my uh natural nail polish on from France, anyways. Yeah, because that's toxic too. You know, the fake nails, all that's toxic. Okay, so you, so many other transitions.

Books, TV, Legacy, And Goodbye

SPEAKER_00 39:40

We're running out of time. We got about 10 minutes, but you were on Fox News, a healthy you.

SPEAKER_01 39:45

You wrote Well, that was well, that was really uh, you know, that again, you know, when I when I gave it over and said, you know, you're the big boy, you're the big boss, tell me what you want me to do. Things just fell into place. I mean, Roger actually came to me and said, you know, you've done so many things. What do you want to do? What have you not done? I said, Roger, I've not worked for you. He said, Well, what do you want to do? I said, a health show or a travel show. I have two different ideas, and we're at lunch, and I don't want to pitch you. I will make an appointment to see you. Right. And I made an appointment to see him, and he already had his mind made up. It was going to be a health show. So it was there was like the books, like that. I was I was selling a book called The Sophisticated Woman's Guide to Survival.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

It was a title that Bill O'Reilly said, you know, you should write this book. Right. And that's that's what I was pitching. And they said, Well, what's your favorite? You know, Mirimax said, What's your favorite chapter? I said, I would have to say the chapter on food. And I started talking about the chapter on food. They said, That's what you should write the book about. They gave you a three-book deal.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

Why? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

So I I knew I was, you know, I don't want to be the Rumbo chick. I'm an actor. Why are you asking me to do this? I know you are. I could feel it in my soul. No, I had no choice. I had no choice.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

Yeah, yeah. But your mindset, I mean, you're just such an amazing person because you're just always trying something new and you just keep moving and chugging forward, and your energy is wonderful. And I just love it. I mean, I think that about you. Yeah, well, so when you leave after all of your success, what do you want your legacy to be to other people?

SPEAKER_01 41:26

That I that I was an inspiration and helped people to live better lives, to be better people, to eat better. Because when you eat better, you feel better. And when you feel better, you're nicer to people. I mean, really, that's that's really what it's about for me. I hope I entertained people with my films because it's a very hard life. And, you know, the comedies I do and and the the movies I do, I do out of love because I love to do it. I love to tell stories. I I, you know, really love people. I really want people to be happy, and it's so hard to be happy these days. It really is, unless you're at peace with yourself. And I find a lot of people just aren't.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

And I'm I'm hoping I can, you know, when I do my tea times on uh, you know, on um on my Instagram, it's inspirational that you know we're not all perfect, we're we we're not all able to do what other people do, but look at look at your own attributes and you know be happy and and joyous in that and bring that forth to the world because the universe will conspire to find use for you.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Yes. Well, I think you're wonderful. You're one of my longest old-time friends, and I'm so glad I got to share you with everybody else. You're not only beautiful, but you're very smart and you're so driven. So thank you so much for being on Unexpired.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

I I really appreciate you having me on Kimmy's. Good luck. You know, I wish you all the best.

SPEAKER_00 42:51

Yeah, I love you. Love you. Thanks for watching the show. If you have any questions for me or you want any more information, go to kimalexis.com.