My dad bought me a camera, and I started taking it everywhere with me. I realised how much I was enjoying the whole process - from taking the images to editing them and developing them - and it soon became a complete passion.
Copy Quote View & ShareGrowing up, I saw my dad do charity work for children with health issues. That had a profound effect on me.
Copy Quote View & ShareI remember my dad, who coached football, would buy some of his players football shoes when they couldn't afford it.
Copy Quote View & ShareMy dad was disappointed in me because I was obese, and he was a sports guy. As a result, I spent a lot of time in that basement. I could go down there and escape and be whatever I wanted to be. I had a huge fantasy life. It always involved vengeance.
Copy Quote View & ShareThe word 'racist' is a permanent stain against my name. It's worse than a criminal record. Some people will never forgive me. Others will accept I made a terrible mistake and recognise I have learnt from it. It's on YouTube when my kids type in their dad's name, and it comes up 'Jamie Vardy racist'. On Google, too. It's horrible.
Copy Quote View & ShareWhen I was 12, my feet were so small, I wore my sisters' glitter shoes. My dad would whoop me: 'You're not going to school now, you'll embarrass us!'
Copy Quote View & ShareMy dad was a scientist. More than that: my dad grew up in a tiny terraced house in Swansea, the only child of a second-generation immigrant family - his father sold cloth, zips and buttons from door to door - and so science - biochemistry at Swansea University, followed by a PhD at Imperial College - was his way out, his way up.
Copy Quote View & ShareI was in my dad's church, his Baptist church, and I think the first song I ever performed was 'Jesus Be a Fence Around Me.'
Copy Quote View & ShareI'm good friends with Robbie Williams because we both grew up in Stoke and our dads went to the same pubs. His dad, Pete, is like my second dad, I can talk to him about anything and I see him most weeks. And Rob is brilliant, a really generous, lovely bloke.
Copy Quote View & ShareWhenever my parents got married, my dad had a mullet. Me and my dad are very similar-type people with the way we look and the way we act, and I figured if he could get away with it when he was around 25, then I could try to do the same thing.
Copy Quote View & ShareThere's so much fakeness in the fashion world, but Mum and Dad have always given us a good work ethic and were quite worried at first about whether I could make a living from acting. They've been together for 29 years and share the same values. I really do want to have that kind of marriage myself.
Copy Quote View & ShareThe biggest lesson I learned from my dad is to support children even if they're doing something that is unorthodox.
Copy Quote View & ShareI wanted to be a violin-maker like my dad, and then I wanted to be a doorman in my building.
Copy Quote View & SharePeople have told me to change it over the years, but my dad is always saying, 'Never change your name!' My middle name is O'Hara, so it's a pretty epic name. Emily O'Hara Ratajkowski.
Copy Quote View & ShareI did Jools Holland, which was bonkers because it's an institution, and as a family, we've all been into it our whole lives, and then I did Hootenanny. I took my mum and dad along, and they were sat there next to Gregory Porter and Chaka Khan. My dad was just laughing, like he couldn't believe it was real.
Copy Quote View & ShareBefore we took down the tree each year, Dad would always say a prayer that we would be together the next Christmas. I cling to that prayer, which serves as a reminder that it's important to be grateful in the present for the people you love because, well, you never know.
Copy Quote View & ShareOne time, on Marine One, the president asked me my opinion. I had a flashback to being at the kitchen table with my dad. That dominant male figure set me up for being confident to express myself with precision and persuasion.
Copy Quote View & ShareWhen I was younger, I had a perm, and it was really big. My mom was a hairdresser, so even my dad had a perm! I looked like a poodle, but it was cool at the time.
Copy Quote View & ShareI will always find my light. No question. And if I don't, I'll know, because my dad will be the first person to call me and say, like, 'You need to have him bring another 2K in,' and 'Why aren't you using this sort of lighting gel?' The crew guys know that it's where I grew up.
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