The 83-year-old New York-born beauty - who first covered Vogue when she was 15 and has enjoyed an illustrious career ever since - spoke frankly about everything from maintaining her model figure through seven decades in the industry, to 'preparing' for death, and still enjoying sex in her 80s.

'Of course I still have a sex life, why would I give that up?' she insists. 'Do I love to breathe? If you have a Rolls Royce and it is up on wheels, you go in with the key and every now and then turn on the motor to make sure the motor is running. So when you want to drive the car, it is all oiled and ready.'

Carmen, who was born in New York to parents of Italian and Hungarian descent, has been married three times and engaged once more but doesn't mention any names in reference to her current love life.

In a 2011 interview with The Telegraph, however, she said: 'There's always a boyfriend. Whatever else I have to give up on, I won't give up on love.'

Asked by New You how Carmen keeps her proverbial Rolls Royce 'oiled', the stunning model responds: 'I know how to pleasure myself. 

'I can go for a low romantic love, and that’s fine but I am conditioned to the whole meal.' 

Speaking about why so many people 'give up' on sex later on in life, Carmen states: 'Because they never entered sex from the right doorway.

'We are told by our parents, "don’t do that" or "that’s bad" and then 

there is religion and the doctors who say "oh you are over sex."

'No - you are just under-satisfied. It should be like breathing - so natural.'

Carmen also spoke to the publication about maintaining her model figure over the 70 years she has been working.

'I eat to my appetite and don’t count calories,' she says.

'I want to enjoy food passionately. I could have gotten into trouble with food in my lifetime because I love to eat but I was given a free pass because I metabolize food well.'

(dailymail.co.uk)