When meeting Britain's most famous slimmer, I thought it wise to eat beforehand: 'she won't eat anything', I told my colleague through a mouthful of M&S wrap. Sighting the immaculately turned-out Conley in one of London's less salubrious cafes, one is struck by the slightness of the perfectly coiffered diet queen. She is remarkably fresh faced, bright eyed and smartly dressed – albeit in a white snakeskin blazer. I mentally prepare for an hour of holding my stomach in and order a fruit smoothie.

Rosemary orders a cheese and ham toastie, and a white tea, 'with sugar'.

White carbs? Caffeine? Full-fat cheese? Is she mad? 'A little of what you fancy', she tells me, with an impish smile, 'I'm not holding myself up to be anything extraordinary, I just want to help people.' I release my stomach muscles with relief and we agree to split the toastie: Rosemary is now my favourite slimmer in Britain.

But she wasn't always this way. Aged 21, newly married and away from home for the first time, she started a cordon bleu cookery course in weekly parts in an attempt to be the 'proper wife' and homemaker. Her husband, accountant Phil Conley, must have been delighted: 'I learned lots, and made some wonderful things,' says Rosemary. The trouble was she also ate them. At just 5' 2”, she went up to 10st 4lb and, 'felt awful: I would binge and then starve myself. I hated myself and then I'd eat more.' Was she in the grip of an eating disorder? 'No, no: no,' insists Rosemary, 'I was just yo-yoing. People do that'.

The problem came to a head when Rosemary met up with an ex whose new girlfriend took her aside and suggested she lose weight.

'She was gorgeous and I was bursting out of my jeans,' recalls Rosemary, 'it was mortifying'. But it worked. She began 'slimming and grooming' classes and the weight fell off. Rosemary was hooked and started running classes herself. The classes flourished over the next eight years and Rosemary also had a daughter, Dawn - who by the age of three was so well informed that she asked her mother for a yoghurt as she 'needed the protein'. In 1981, IPC magazines bought out her classes for 50k and Rosemary was working 90-hour weeks.

'It went a bit crazy,' she admits, 'I changed from somebody with no ambition to someone who was quite ambitious'. It cost her marriage. 'It was amicable,' says Rosemary, 'I wasn't unhappy, we just parted after 13 years'. After the divorce, Dawn stayed with her father in the family home and Rosemary moved out. Didn't she miss her daughter? 'Of course,' says Rosemary, 'but she was only five miles away.' Still…

Dawn, now 30, is 'very close' to her mother, and supports her growing empire which now extends to a magazine, franchises, books, videos, and most recently a salsa DVD. Aged 59, Conley's not slowing down. 'I can't let go,' she says, 'I thought I might when I was 60, but now that's not far off. Anyway 60 is the new 40. Maybe when I'm 90'.

Conley is a living brand and has to look the part. She never goes out without make up – 'I look awful, you wouldn't recognise me' – but wouldn't go for surgery. 'As a role model I have a responsibility,' – the Conley promise is, “you can look this way if you work at it,' and not, 'go under the knife”. Rosemary works at it. 'You're going to get wrinkles, that's a fact,' she says, 'but you can stay young by keeping fit. These days there are older role models making it acceptable to be older and still attractive'.

Rosemary married company director Mike Rimmington, 13 years her junior, in 1987 and says that having a younger husband keeps her sprightly.

'He would tell me if I was getting fat,' she says. I look shocked, but she explains her theory that women, 'owe it to themselves' to stay attractive for their partner. It's awfully un-PC, but it might just work…She has other ideas: 'women are so good at juggling, so capable, that men can feel redundant. I have a controlling nature and I'm in control all day at work, but at home you have to let go of some of that and mellow a bit. So now when get hope and Mike offers to help, I say, 'actually, yes'. You get less stressed and he feels valued.'

It's a lesson she's learnt with age. 'Getting older is fab,' says Rosemary, 'you have more wisdom, a better balance of what's important, and you've learnt to say 'no' – I wouldn't swap my place for anybody's. Well, maybe a 40-year-old's face…'She is refreshingly honest about what fame has brought her.

'I'm lucky: I don't have to worry about the heating bills, I can pay for someone to do things to make my life easier - the ironing, the cleaning.'

Rosemary also has a driver to make her 'more efficient and less stressed'. She's no martyr: when the menopause arrived, Rosemary felt terrible, 'I lost my zest for life'. She read about the risks involved in HRT, 'but I just thought, 'I can't do this on my own, I want quality of life'.' You feel that she deserves it: 'I've worked hard for what I have. I love my job,' she says, and with her 60th birthday this year Rosemary insists, 'I'm the happiest I've ever been'. With that she trips off to a waiting baby blue Bentley. The grubby-aproned café proprietor calls out to her, 'you come again soon,' then whispers conspiratorially, 'Who was that beautiful lady?' I don't think he stands a chance.

Copyright © 2006 allaboutyou.com