Dionne Warwick secret to age-defying looks as she approaches 80th birthday

Fast food, cigarettes and no exercise – it’s not a typical anti-ageing ­formula. But as she approaches her 80th birthday, and almost six decades after her first hit single, Dionne Warwick is anything but typical.

The icon is preparing to celebrate the milestone with a live-streamed charity concert, showing off the same slender figure she had in the 1960s and a remarkably wrinkle-free complexion.

Asked about her regime, she says: “I’m not what you consider a healthy eater.

“I love McDonald’s, I eat fried chicken… I loved everything my mother put in my mouth during my growing years, so I still imbibe those things. I like me, so I take care of me. I take care of my skin. I don’t put make-up on every day. My face is clear, free and able to breathe.”

Dionne insists she is finally “on the way to quitting” smoking.

But fitness routines aren’t on the agenda. “I am too lazy to exercise, I really am,” she says – insisting that running through airports and performing have been enough to keep her in shape.

“You’d be surprised, you’re using a lot of energy. It’s a lot of exercise.”

After touring for the best part of 58 years, it figures. And with hits including Anyone Who Had a Heart, Walk On By and – her least favourite – Do You Know the Way to San Jose?, plus 25 million album sales, Dionne is a living legend.

Born on December 12, 1940, she is from a gospel-singing family and a cousin of the late Whitney Houston. Her career started when songwriting duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David hired her to do demos. A typo on her 1962 debut, Don’t Make Over, misspelt her real surname of Warrick and it stuck.

Huge hits followed, including the theme to 1967 film Alfie. The next year she performed for the Queen.

Towards the end of the 1970s, her career stalled. Burt and Hal parted ways mid-contract and Dionne sued, winning an out-of-court settlement.

But in the 1980s, they had made up and she got one of her six Grammy “rewards”, as she calls the awards, by singing on Burt’s 1985 charity hit That’s What Friends Are For with Gladys Knight, Elton John and Stevie Wonder.

Her success waned in the 1990s and a stint presenting a US psychic TV phone-in show means she still gets asked if she is a clairvoyant (she isn’t).

Dionne was declared bankrupt in 2013 and has continued working since. She would have toured the UK this autumn, if not for the pandemic. But as a Christian, she is careful about work and has turned down projects with several musicians – most recently Blur’s Damon Albarn – as their lyrics did not fit her values. “I feel I’m a messenger,” she says of her music. “I’ve got to be careful of the messages I send to people.”

It seems likely, then, that she might not approve of the explicit lyrics of younger artists, including Ariana Grande – whose latest album, Positions, graphically details her sex life. “No,” Dionne admits. “I don’t…. I don’t.”

But it’s Ariana’s stage outfits she really balks at. “There’s no way you would see me in some of the costumes – that’s what I call them – these young ladies are putting on. Or almost putting on…” she laughs.

And it surprises her that some younger stars – including Miley Cyrus – haven’t tried to tap her expertise.

“Miley is just one of the youngsters that has chosen their own way of doing what she does,” says Dionne, diplomatically. “I don’t have to approve of it, it’s not my place. However, I do wish as I look at some of these ladies, ‘Oh, look at this photo of me, of Gladys [Knight], Diahann Carroll, Lena Horne – please!’

“This is the mentorship we are able to give. I was mentored by the iconic women – and men – of our industry. Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Diahann Carroll, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. These people were the epitome of real showbusiness. I’m standing on [their] shoulders and my shoulders have broadened to have these youngsters stand on them. All they’ve got to do is reach out, as I did.”

In recent years, Dionne has said goodbye to many legends of her generation. Just this year, she lost friends including Helen Reddy and Mac Davis.

Despite turning 80 this Saturday, she has no plans to retire. But she has talked of slowing down – hence the title of her postponed tour, One Last Time. And this year certainly slowed things. “I miss performing,” she says. “I miss looking in people’s faces and seeing the smiles.”

Dionne is working in new music and teases more collaborations with Burt, saying coyly: “That’s never a dead issue.” But this year’s unexpected time off came as a welcome surprise for the star – mum of two sons to drummer William David Elliott (who she wed, divorced, remarried and divorced again) and granny to “grandbabies” she adores. “I’m treating this as the vacation I never had,” she says. “I’ve spent 90% of my life on the road. I’m finally getting to know my home.”

But she vows she’ll be running through Europe’s airports again “whenever the pandemic says, ‘Get back on your horse and ride’”.

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