Miss GB twins still in demand – aged 65
AS BEAUTY queens in the Seventies, twins Zoe and Gay Spink were always in demand for modelling assignments.
More than four decades on, the work is still pouring in and the sisters – now aged 65 – have just signed with a London agency.
Zoe said: ‘It’s fantastic that our age isn’t against us and clients still want to book us. We love working together too. As twins we have such a strong bond, and this has only brought us closer together.’
It all began when Gay won the Miss Yorkshire Rose title in 1973 – and later that year the Miss Great Britain title after Zoe sent a photo of her sister into the competition.
Mother-of-two Zoe said: ‘When Gay won it, we all couldn’t quite believe it…it was just amazing to have my own sister win such a title. I thought well if she can do it, so can I. I’d already been crowned Miss Yorkshire TV Times and Miss National TV Times the year before. Four years later, in 1977, I won the Miss Britain and Miss Silver Jubilee titles.’
Beauty certainly runs in the family. The twins’ mother Betty was Miss Great Britain runner-up in 1948. Gay, who lives in Halifax with husband Paul, said: ‘Mum would always talk about the fun she had competing and it gave us the confidence to enter the contests too.’
The titles gave them a springboard into the modelling world and saw them working for brands like Selfridges, where they had to wear diamonds worth £100,000, clad in nothing but skimpy platinum bikinis.
Zoe said: ‘The diamonds were so expensive that Gay and I each had to be handcuffed to a security guard. We had such fun working that we never wanted it to stop.’ The twins have recently secured contracts for work with leading brands such as Remington, Monarch Airlines and Fitness First and dermatology brand Galderma UK. And a few months ago they were signed by Grey Model Agency in London.
Zoe, who lost her husband Akin two years ago, added: ‘Clients do like working with twins. There has never been any proper rivalry between us. We just support each other in the work we do.’