It’s been 26 years since Julia Roberts was first on the cover of People’s World’s Most Beautiful issue, and she’s still our favorite pretty woman.
The stunning star is, for a record fifth time, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World – though she can hardly believe it. “I am very flattered,” she tells People’s editor-in-chief Jess Cagle in this week’s cover story.
In fact, Roberts is now way ahead of pal George Clooney, who has been People’s Sexiest Man Alive twice. Jokes Roberts of the feat, “I’m going to mention that in my Christmas card to the Clooneys this year.”
Roberts, 49, opens up about her happy 14-year marriage to cinematographer Danny Moder, her life with twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, 12, and Henry, 9, and the secrets of her ageless beauty in her interview with Cagle and People’s style and beauty director, Andrea Lavinthal.
She thinks the best is yet to come: “I think I’m currently peaking.”
Roberts was just 23 when she first appeared on the cover of the World’s Most Beautiful issue in 1991. The year before, she had skyrocketed to instant fame when she starred in the smash romantic comedy Pretty Woman.
But behind the scenes, Roberts reveals, she had no idea how much her life had changed.
“People say, ‘Oh, when Pretty Woman came out it must have really changed your life,’ and it’s kind of become this joke, but the truth is I was out of town whenPretty Woman came out,” she says in the cover story. “I was in another movie in this tiny little town that was showing Star Wars in its first run. I remember reading … ‘Pretty Woman came out this weekend and made this much money’ and I thought, ‘Is that a lot of money? Is that good? Is that great?’ I didn’t really know.”
She reflects on how she found confidence after her “awkward” early years — and how she found her own fairy-tale ending. “I mean every day my husband walks in the door it’s like a recurring dream. I’m like, ‘Ah, he’s back!’