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The supermodel and founder of Every Mother Counts has mastered the art of time well spent.
It’s easy to marvel at Turlington Burns’s longevity. We’ve known her as a supermodel since the 90s catwalks. She’s spent more than a decade running her maternal health nonprofit,
Every Mother Counts, which has helped over one million women, babies, health workers, and community members around the world. And she’s been the face for the same brand—Calvin Klein Eternity (yes, eternity—it couldn’t be more fitting)—for 34 years.
Turlington Burns starred in the first Eternity advertising campaign during its 1988 debut when she was 19 years old. Then starting in 2014, she and her husband, the director, writer, producer, and actor Edward Burns, began to pose together in each campaign. The latest iteration, shot by Lachlan Bailey, shows the couple on a California beach at sunset.
Fittingly, when we recently connected with Turlington Burns via video call in New York, we talked a lot about time, from how she likes to spend it to who she prefers to shares it with. Her insights offer a glimpse into how she’s maintained her natural, serene, and understated persona.
“I practice yoga almost every day. I kind of schedule my life around it to be honest,” Turlington Burns says. This isn’t someone who sets an alarm for dawn to get it done: “I don’t want to treat it as something that I have to squeeze in. It’s really important, and so having it be the centerpiece of my day is how I try to approach it.” Creating a space in her home for her active practice has been key. “It’s nice to have the consistency of the same room with the same things around me. It puts me in the mindset much quicker,” she says.
“Throughout every phase of my life I’ve had this ability to center myself even when I’m working too much or I’m traveling too much,” she explains. It’s come with time and her yoga practice: “I was lucky enough to discover yoga at 18 years old, and it’s been my most consistent go-to. It helps me make sure that I’m at my best—and everybody in my life benefits when I am.”
“My husband and I are together a lot these days because our oldest [daughter] just started college and our son is a teenager and has a girlfriend,” Turlington Burns says. “It’s actually really, really nice, especially when you’ve been with somebody a long time and you really enjoy each other’s company 20 years in.”
She notes that it’s easier to spend time together now than when the children were younger: “We did try to enforce weekly date nights and find some time over the weekend to be on our own because it was important, but it was so hard to do when we had little people depending on us. It does get better!”
Turlington Burns finds time with her daughter, Grace, especially inspiring. "She’s at college, but in New York and can visit frequently. I still miss her because our lives have changed…but she’s at an age where she’s so tuned into music, film, and books and I live vicariously through her. Some of it is material that I’ve been exposed to before, but I love getting to hear her excitement and her thoughts,” she says.
“I have a new appreciation for the phrase TGIF,” she says, adding that she keeps Saturdays and Sundays as commitment-free as possible, using the time to rest, maybe catch-up on The New Yorker articles she’s flagged, and get outside. "I go for a run or walk my dogs. I appreciate that these small creatures force you to get off your computer and go, no matter the season," she says. And then “I can come back into the week ahead with composure and focus."
Like many of us these days, there isn’t a go-to fragrance. Instead, it’s selected based on her mood. “I definitely use fragrance as an energy boost, a way to change my mindset, or as a mood-elevator,” Turlington Burns says. “Also, after being in our homes for so long, it’s nice to have an opportunity to share our scent with someone else.”
Kate Sandoval Box (she/her) is the Beauty Director at Oprah Daily. She has over 18 years of experience at national women’s media brands; and, in fact, started her publishing career at O, The Oprah Magazine. She’s also held beauty editor roles at Shape, Self, Latina, and Cosmopolitan. Kate tests hundreds and hundreds of beauty products that cross her desk each year and interviews many top experts, celebrities, and indie brand founders to bring you the best in beauty. Follow her on Instagram.
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