"I admit I had plastic surgery," she says. "I can't say I haven't had it and I am the only woman not affected by gravity! I've also had Botox that is supposed to get rid of lines. It stays for a few months, then goes, so you have to have it done again."

Yet despite the cosmetic help, the beauty she radiates is not from a surgeon's knife - but contentment that comes with maturity. "There is a freedom I have at 63 that I never had before," she says. "When I was in Dynasty the whole world thought I was beautiful, but I wasn't happy.

"A magazine said I was one of 10 most beautiful women in the world, but I never felt I was. Take Princess Diana - she was absolutely stunning, but was not confident with herself."

Linda appreciates how Diana must have felt. She was just a young actress when her first husband John Derek sold the nude pictures of her - and 40 years on it still rankles. "My first husband shot me in the nude," she says. "They were for the two of us, but he released them. He said we needed the money. I was only 23."

To her embarrassment, years later - at the height of her fame as Krystle Carrington - the pictures were re-released. It was part of the price Linda had to pay until Dynasty ended in 1989 and she was able to return to a more normal life. "After Dynasty I didn't want to care about the way I looked," she says. "For nine years I had been very busy, weight-training and getting up at 4.30am for work.

But after several failed attempts, she turned to aerobics. Now, to maintain her new figure she works out almost daily on a computerised bicycle, a treadmill and walks in the countryside near her home in Seattle, Washington State.

"Oh no," laughs Linda. "We never really fought on Dynasty - much to everyone's dismay. She is a fabulous woman, never stops working - and she looks beautiful."

The two actresses and friends will soon be reunited on stage, touring the States in a play called Legends about two divas who can't stand each other.

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