‘I was fired for telling women to steal from their husbands to buy jewellery’
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Since Janice Dickinson’s supermodel career launched in the 1970s, she’s racked up almost 50 magazine covers and countless catwalks.
Dickinson was a judge on America’s Next Top Model and had her own series, The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.
Possibly best known for ITV’s I’m a Celebrity, Dickinson first took part in 2007, returning in 2023 for the All Stars series.
In between she’s been a housemate on Celebrity Big Brother, and cooked up a storm on Celebrity Come Dine with Me. She has survived breast cancer and bankruptcy.
She has two children, Nathan, 34 and Savannah, 29, as well as a grandson, Leo, one, and a granddaughter Talulah, who’s due to arrive in the summer.
Now 68 she lives with her husband, retired psychiatrist Dr Roger “Rocky” Gerner in Los Angeles.
How did your childhood influence your attitude towards money?
We didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up. My father was a merchant marine and my mother was a nurse.
I had an older sister and a younger sister and we grew up in Hollywood, Florida – between Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
We lived in a bungalow with four bedrooms and three bathrooms. It was on an acre of land, about 12 blocks from the beach, within bicycle riding distance, so I could go every day. It was fun and I took up watersports at an early age, so I’d be sailing, surfing, fishing and waterskiing.
We didn’t have the money to go to many places on holiday. We’d go to The Bahamas or Jamaica or Bimini.
What was your first job?
My first job was working at a pizza parlour. I was 14 but I lied about my age and told them I was 18. I worked there for a couple of years around school, until they found out my real age. I was still too young to work there so they let me go. I was probably earning minimum wage.
When I was 18 I worked as a cocktail waitress at a hooker bar. I don’t remember how much I was making but it was a creepy place to work. Lots of hookers went there and left with their escorts.
I would sell them bottles of champagne and the guys would get mad at me because I’d pull out the expensive champagne for the hookers. I do believe hookers should be paid well and drink the most expensive champagne on earth.
Are you a saver or a spender?
I’m definitely a spender. I spend on fashion. I buy shoes, purses, dresses, evening dresses, jackets, lingerie and bathing suits.
The most expensive shoes I’ve bought were $3,000 (£2,630). They’re Louis Vuitton and they’re covered in gems, in all sorts of colours. I got them a year and a half ago to wear to a gala.
I have a Chanel handbag that was around $6,000. It’s black canvas with tweed and it has Chanel Rue Cambon printed on the back. It’s beautiful. I bought it because it’s unique and interesting.
I love swimwear. I like the French brand Eres. I have an electric blue Eres bikini that was $395 for the top alone. The bottom was another $150.
Do you invest in shares?
My husband does, for me. He’s in charge of the bling in the house. He’s in charge of the cha cha. Once in a while he’ll talk to me about it. It goes in one ear and out the other but we’ve had some good wins.
We bought some B-grade bonds in July last year when the interest rate was over 7pc. As interest rates go down, the value shoots up, so later this year we’ll probably make 50pc.
Have you invested in property?
In 2018 we bought two houses in Marina del Rey [California]. We completely remodelled them, then sold them in 2019 and 2020, making a 20pc profit on each one. We should have kept them though – they’d be worth a lot more now.
We’ve lived in our home in LA since September 2016. It has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a den, a big kitchen, a dining room, a couple of rooms for children or maids, and a couple of rooms for guests that come from out of town.
The house is all on one floor. There’s no upstairs. We didn’t want that anymore. I’m at a point in my life where I’m falling, so I didn’t want to go up and down steps at night.
We have a gym but we don’t have a swimming pool because my backyard is covered with trees and it’s not conducive for a swimming pool to be covered in leaves. It’s worth $1.7m.
What’s your best financial decision?
I didn’t make much for my magazine covers – but doing them helped me get the more commercial stuff that pays better.
I’ve been on the cover of Vogue 37 times and I got paid $75 a day. I’ve been on the cover of Playboy – they paid a few hundred dollars.
Magazines figure we should pay them for the prestige of being on the cover. That’s why they don’t really pay – but it absolutely helped my career.
What has been your worst financial decision?
Probably selling off the real estate we had.
Have you saved for retirement?
I got a pension in 2016 when I married Rocky. He got me involved in it. I wish I had started a pension much earlier. It would have been loaded.
What’s the best thing you’ve bought?
My husband’s wedding ring, and taking a three week trip to Italy together in 2019. We flew first class and stayed in suites, eating the whole way through Rome, Venice, Florence and Milan. We saw every church there was. I kind of wore out my heels.
What’s the worst thing you’ve bought?
I asked my husband for a gold Rolex and he got me one, but it’s self-winding. Every time I put it on, I have to ask him to reset the watch because it hasn’t been self-wound. I have one of those machines that wind the watch but I always forget to turn it on.
What’s been your most lucrative work
I made $300,000 in two hours making a commercial for Orbit chewing gum. That was in the 2000s.
In the 1980s I got several commercials from Japanese clients, where my day rate was $30,000. They’d book me for three or four days, at $30,000 a day. That’s what they’d pay me. That’s what I’m worth.
Gianni Versace was probably the greatest person to work for. He used to pay $10,000 a catwalk show, and I did all his shows. I did four a year. It was fun. He was my friend and I miss him.
Out of the reality TV shows, I’m a Celebrity is the show I’ve been paid the most for. I’m not supposed to disclose how much I got, but if it’s one price, I’ll say: “Quadruple it.”
I’ll get a sense of what they’re able to afford. So if they paid Bruce Jenner this amount, they can afford to pay me the same – and I’ll tag on another couple of hundred thousand dollars.
I have the balls in driving my own career. I always have. Because I’m on the top shelf of what I do. I deliver. I sell.
People make money when they hire me. It boosts television ratings and magazine circulation – you put me in the magazine and it sells more magazines.
Have you ever struggled financially?
The way my industry works is, when I’m hot. I’m hot, and when I’m not, I’m not. When I’m hot I get booked. When I’m not, the money doesn’t come in and the pit could dry up in three or four months.
In 2013 I went bankrupt for a lot. A million dollars? Probably. I lost track of what I was spending and it started to add up. I went overboard and I couldn’t afford to cover my cheques – my American Express bills, mostly.
It’s not true that I had unpaid plastic surgery bills. I’ve had pretty invasive surgeries like boobs and a facelift, but I’ve never paid for any plastic surgery. Doctors approach me to offer me surgery, for the privilege of working on me.
Going bankrupt was the right decision at that time because, what else could I do? Break it up into payment plans? The amount was too large for me to do that. I’m doing fine because I went bankrupt. I never really lost that much.
What’s your best business decision?
I took photographs of celebrities for magazines. I was doing it on the side from the early 1990s, because I figured I might as well pick up a job I could do after I quit modeling.
Sylvester Stallone was the most lucrative celebrity for me, because I had some pretty racy pictures of him. Probably because we were in a relationship.
The photography lasted for about 20 years, then my eyes went bad – but I still model. They haven’t let me hang my heels up yet.
I’ve written three autobiographies and the first one, No Lifeguard on Duty, was on the New York Times bestseller list for about 12 weeks. There’s a big appetite because people like reading about me. I should start my fourth book because it’s time.
What’s your worst business decision?
Telling women to steal their husbands’ wallets. It got me fired from the Home Shopping Network. They’d hired me to sell a jewellery line they had lying around – they wanted me to get rid of it. It was a lot of fun, and I was on commission so I did sell.
It went well because everything I touch turns to gold.
I told women to steal their husbands’ wallets in the middle of the night and buy a bunch of jewellery and he’d never know. HR didn’t think that was appropriate. They told me that I shouldn’t be talking like that and I got fired.
