ALISON BOSHOFF: Is Cara Delevingne in crisis? Bruised, bleary-eyed, smoking a mystery pipe and visiting a sex shop, the once-glossy model seems a shadow of her former self. Friends say turning 30 and selling her beloved LA home left her in a tricky place
Pulling on a pipe while sitting in her car, she looks ashen, with sunken cheeks and dark rings circling her eyes. That glow which propelled her to a huge fortune and global fame has faded.
Supermodel Cara Delevingne’s famously goofy charm is also a thing of the past. In its place is a jaded eccentricity, as she potters around Los Angeles alone, visiting a sex shop on a midweek afternoon.
She was also seen sipping an unknown liquid from a pipette and apparently ‘zoning out’ while parked up.
A few weeks after celebrating her 30th birthday in a hedonistic whirl with friends including Sienna Miller and Margot Robbie on a yacht, Cara’s life now looks rather less than glossy.
Model Cara Delevingne is pictured after visiting a sex shop smoking a pipe while sat in her car
Her tanned limbs are sprinkled with bruises, and the psoriasis she suffers from at times of stress has flared up again.
A friend who saw her in Ibiza observes: ‘She was more messy out there than she had been in a while but says she is OK, fine about turning 30 and having a great time.
‘She will think that the pictures are funny — she doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with the way she is living her life and says she is absolutely fine.’
It doesn’t exactly look that way, though. And recent interviews have only served to heighten concerns.
Appearing on Jimmy Fallon’s chat show in July to plug her role in the Disney+ hit Only Murders In The Building, she tried to do a magic trick and was visibly trembling as she held up a playing card.
‘Can you see how much my hand is shaking?’ she asked. ‘Yes, is that part of the trick?’ U.S. host Fallon responded.
A subsequent interview on another U.S. show, Live With Kelly And Ryan, saw her gabbling answers and rubbing her hands together with such force that the noise was picked up by microphones.
And at the Met Gala in May she drew attention for all the wrong reasons, appearing in an unflattering red suit which she opened to reveal her naked torso painted gold. ‘The nipple needs to be free,’ she declared.
At the Met Gala in May she drew attention for all the wrong reasons, appearing in an unflattering red suit which she opened to reveal her naked torso painted gold
Cara does have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which may account for the apparently jittery behaviour, but there are fears that she is heading for a fall.
Nobody needs reminding that her mother Pandora struggled with addiction when Cara was a girl.
At times Pandora, the daughter of Sir Jocelyn Stevens, the publishing magnate, and Jane Sheffield, Princess Margaret’s lady-in-waiting, even moved out of the family home to try to shield the children from the trauma.
Pandora said recently: ‘You’re an addictive person or you’re not. I am. I’m paranoid the girls might drink too much or take too many drugs — understandably, I think. I do talk to them about it. They say, ‘I’m OK, Mum’ or, ‘I’m this or I’m that’, but they’re not addicts.’
The effect of this instability on Cara was severe. She said: ‘I was a nurturing child and wanted to make sure everyone was OK. It didn’t feel wrong. But looking back, I’m like, ‘Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have been put in that position.’ ‘
Aged 15, Cara had a mental breakdown. ‘Everything I hadn’t dealt with bubbled up to the surface. I had no coping skills. Instead of being able to breathe or take a moment, I tried to smash my head into a tree to knock myself out.’
Further angst came about because of her sexuality. Cara, who describes herself as pansexual, said: ‘Growing up as a queer child was isolating and hard to navigate at times.
‘My sisters did their best to be there for me but it was something I had to go through myself to truly know who I was. I’m still on that journey and will continue to be for the rest of my life.’
An escape came via Sarah Doukas of Storm modelling agency — her daughter and Cara were best friends and she suggested Cara, a boarder at Bedales, try out in front of the camera.
Although she actually wanted to become an actress or rock drummer, she was almost instantly sensationally successful.
In 2012 and 2013, Cara became fashion’s new It girl. Aged 20, with her distinctive bushy brows and quirky personality, she was a stand-out star.
In all, she has been on the cover of Vogue 15 times. Along with numerous editorial shoots, she has also undertaken more lucrative commercial work for big- name brands.
She is currently an ambassador for Dior and Puma, and has apparently earned more than £50 million from modelling.
But she said: ‘A few years in, I realised modelling wasn’t good for me physically or emotionally and I’d have to try different things.’
Later she added: ‘Money is not everything. You get to the point where you are like, ‘Oh, I’ve made money, but I’m so deeply unhappy and alone.’ ‘
In another interview she said: ‘Modelling isn’t fulfilling. It’s not! Especially when, a lot of the time, you don’t get your voice heard. I always wanted to be an actor. That was always something I knew since I was a kid.’
Her acting career has been successful — she’s been in the hit series Carnival Row and has plans to shoot some films next year.
Cara was spotted changing clothes inside her car and dropping some unknown liquid in her mouth
But I’m told that she cancelled several interviews to promote the U.S. comedy series Only Murders In The Building last month.
Her performance, as the artist girlfriend of Selena Gomez’s character, has drawn mixed reviews.
And then there is the question of her private life. She’s apparently been single since splitting from actress Ashley Benson in 2020, and I’m told that there may be feelings that she’s being left behind by friends and former lovers.
Singer Rita Ora, who was so close to Cara that they called each other ‘wifey’, married director Taika Waititi this summer.
The Queen’s Gambit actress Anya Taylor-Joy — who stayed with Cara in LA for a period last year — has also just got married. Anya called Cara ‘baby munchkin’ on social media, stating: ‘You are everything’, and they were seen holding hands at fashion shows.
A flirtatious friendship with co-star Selena Gomez appears to have faded, too, after the two of them got matching rose tattoos and were seen kissing while watching basketball last year.
In January, Cara was reportedly spotted canoodling with old pal Sienna Miller in a bar.
But Miller was then — and remains — head over heels in love with her handsome young boyfriend, model Oli Green.
All of which meant that on her yacht in Formentera, Spain, the birthday girl was surrounded by coupled-up friends.
They had a great time, though. Cara and her pals, including older sister Poppy and model Adwoa Aboah, spent time at a rented villa in Ibiza, too, where Cara threw a party.
The house was decorated with giant imitation mushrooms, apparently in reference to the practice of micro-dosing with mushroom-derived hallucinogens.
Meanwhile, Cara has talked about trying to ‘manifest’ a baby by buying baby clothes and shoes.
Her sense of loneliness has only been heightened by her living arrangements.
She has recently sold the party pad in LA which she owned for four years with Poppy.
The two of them decked it out eccentrically, with a copper toilet, vintage bar, Playboy pinball machine, stripper pole and an 11ft bed.
Cara is pictured next to her mother Pandora Delevingne (middle) and Chloe Delevingne at her Cara Delevingne Collection launch back in 2014
A friend says that she thinks moving out of the house has left Cara feeling ‘untethered’.
She remains very close to Poppy, who has also been a model, but both of them are trying to make it as actresses, and they apparently felt it would be easier to have a little distance between them.
She has many friends, of course. Among the most loyal is Georgia May Jagger, the model daughter of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall.
The two of them became close when they were young, and lived together for a time in London when Cara’s career was taking off.
It’s said that Georgia and her family became very concerned for Cara at this time — when Cara was famously pictured dropping what looked like a wrap of cocaine on her doorstep — and arranged for her to spend a month at the Jagger home in Mustique, to recuperate and recharge her batteries.
Might she be in need of another such break?
From the outside you would have to say yes, but apparently Cara’s family are not overly worried about her.
Her godmother Joan Collins observes that she is ‘a very free girl’.
But is she a happy one?
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