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Dressed in a white robe, her hair pulled back in a casual knot, Miranda Kerr gazes out through a patio door onto the garden below. From here, she could easily be posing for the cover of a Danielle Steel novel.
In fact, she’s working, and patiently waiting for her hair and make-up artists to finish yet another look for today’s photoshoot.
The Aussie supermodel looks every inch the professional, immune to the fuss going on around her.
See more of Miranda in our exclusive Sunday Magazine gallery
But perhaps the thing keeping her so calm isn’t the pretty garden or the fact she’s done this a thousand times before. Maybe it’s because, among the hubbub, in her arms, is her six-month-old son, Flynn.
“There will be no heart attacks today,” she says with a smile, while quietly breastfeeding him. “Not much stresses me out.”
It’s been almost 12 months since Sunday Magazine caught up with Kerr, just before the news of her pregnancy broke and after she married actor Orlando Bloom.
Their son, the new love of her life, came along in January this year and Kerr was back at work just eight weeks later, juggling the demands of family and career like so many other Aussie mums.
Despite a demanding schedule, the 28-year-old from Gunnedah manages to stay enviably serene. After a few more shots, she takes the opportunity to feed Flynn again, while also feeding herself a plate of salmon and spinach, and a side of fries. “I need the carbs,” she says.
Kerr’s about to be separated from her baby for the first time since his birth – she’s flying to New York for a photoshoot with acclaimed US photographer Steven Meisel – and is already counting the days until he’s back in her arms.
“I’ll only be away for 16 hours. I’ve been expressing milk in advance,” she says. “But Orlando’s very hands-on with Flynn and they’re looking forward to some bonding time.”
The Victoria’s Secret model is an attentive mum – there’s no retinue of starchy nannies for her. She’s accompanied when necessary by her assistant and best friend of 10 years, Marija, but when it comes to Flynn, she’s there 100 per cent.
“We spent every minute together, morning and night, for those weeks before I went back to work,” she says rocking her precious boy. “He sleeps in our bed every night. I never want to let him go.”
Now that she’s back in front of the camera (“I’m still doing less than a quarter of my previous workload”), doesn’t she want to hire a nanny and be able to get some sleep? She looks horrified at the idea.
“I’ve found a new sense of strength and stamina, so somehow it all comes together,” she explains. “I was always into my sleep, but it’s so different now I’m a mother. I don’t sleep much. But when he gives me that smile, my heart just melts.”
Kerr credits her “family” at David Jones – she’s still the face of the Aussie department chain – with enabling her to spend so much of her time with Flynn.
“I love it because he can come with me to work,” she says, as Flynn nods off. “So I feed him and then I shoot while he sleeps. It’s a lot, but I’m thankful I can bring him along, because not everyone can do that.”
Flynn’s arrival into the world wasn’t easy. Kerr’s labour lasted 27 hours and she didn’t so much as sniff a painkiller, which is no mean feat with a baby weighing an eye-watering 4.5kg at birth. Yet the model insists she found the experience empowering.
“I’ve never been through so much pain, but I was totally present the entire time, focusing on my breath and meditating,” she says. “I kept thinking, how do women do this? But if other women have done this, I can do it, too. I was determined.
“I actually thought I was going to die at one point and left my body. I felt as if I was looking down on myself – the pain was so intense. Then he came out and we met, and it was the best thing. I think once you go through something like that, nothing else fazes you – it puts everything into perspective.” Kerr later revealed to US talk show host Conan O’Brien that she wouldn’t let Bloom leave the room while she was in labour, even making him pee in a bottle.
“Orlando was by my side the whole time,” she smiles. “I couldn’t have done it without him. Just to have his support was a really wonderful experience.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering his parents’ genes, Flynn is already a very good-looking baby.
“He looks exactly like Orlando did when he was a baby,” says Kerr, “and his character is developing every day. He’s content and, even though he’s teething, you can see he’s calm.”
While Flynn might get his looks from dad, his name comes from another very special man in his mother’s life.
Flynn Christopher Blanchard Copeland Bloom was (in part) named after Kerr’s first boyfriend, Christopher Middlebrook, who died in a tragic car accident when he was a teenager. In her book Treasure Yourself, she wrote of that time: “Chris’ death taught me that the people who touch your life are always with you. It taught me that I have the choice to be grateful for the time I had with him instead of dwelling on losing him.”
“Chris and I had been dating for two years,” she says today. “After he died, I wrote him a letter that said I hoped to name my first child after him in some way. I told Orlando and he was the one who said he’d be happy to do that. Orlando’s a good guy.”
Despite having the trappings of a superstar life – famous husband, international modeling career, bestselling book and organic beauty line – Kerr insists she’s just like every other woman and had to work to get back in shape after Flynn’s birth. She says it was her grandmother who helped her most.
“My grandma spent a month with me in LA just before the birth. She was the only one – not even the doctor realised how big Flynn was – who said to me, ‘You’d better keep on walking, Miranda, because you have a big baby inside you.’ I told her I was fine but, near the end, she’d make me do my yoga and we’d go for a walk. We had some wonderful quality time together and I’m looking forward to seeing her and my grandpa when I go back to Australia.”
Sipping on green tea, she says that alongside yoga, her secret weapons are squats and resistance training. “Flynn sits in his bouncer and watches me exercise,” she laughs.
Tucking into the fries, it seems Kerr isn’t afraid to eat. Sticking to her 80/20 philosophy – eat healthily 80 per cent of the time, giving over the other 20 per cent to treats – she says good nutrition is high on her list of priorities. “Everything I’m eating is feeding Flynn. Even if I wasn’t in this profession, I’d still eat well and look after myself.”
Bearing in mind she models lingerie, does she feel different about her body now?
“Yes. I’ll be 100 per cent honest. When I was pregnant, I thought, it doesn’t matter if I get a stretch mark or if my body doesn’t come back. During the birth process, I gave everything over to him, and let go of any attachment I had to myself. I wanted him to be healthy and it didn’t matter what happened to me.
“I have a different type of awareness and respect for my body now. I’m not proud of being back in shape; what makes me proud is that he’s healthy, because it means I’m being a good mother.”
Kerr is well known for her Zen philosophy, which has clearly contributed to the success of her organic beauty line, Kora.
“Kora is a passion, and I enjoy being a businesswoman,” she says. “Nothing happens in that company unless it’s passed by me. Every week, we upload a health and wellness blog, and every week the team and I get together and I approve it. I choose all the products myself, and I use them on Flynn. Orlando uses them, too.”
She picks up Flynn, who’s grizzling on waking, and walks him around the room.
“Mum used to quote Nelson Mandela, who said, ‘As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.’ And I understand it. If you’re comfortable in your own skin, you allow others to be comfortable in theirs. Don’t compare yourself to someone else. There’s so much pressure on women to be everything, when all you need to be is what you bring to the table.”
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