Why did nobody stop me wasting £1m to be the world's most nipped and tucked woman?

She has had more than 330 cosmetic  procedures and operations – far outstripping American Cindy Jackson, usually credited with being the world’s most surgically-enhanced woman.

Former English glamour model Alicia Douvall – best known for her kiss-and-tell affairs with celebrities including music mogul Simon Cowell – claims to have spent more than £1 million on boob jobs, facelifts and even toe shortening operations.

But it has all come at a cost. Ms Douvall claims the work has turned her into an enhancement addict who has been treated in rehab on three occasions – and she has now turned on the plastic surgeons she says should never have encouraged her obsession with looking like Barbie. 

Ms Douvall, who has been linked to a series of celebrities including actor Mickey Rourke and former Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall, said she had undergone so many potentially dangerous and painful operations and procedures – at one point at the rate of one a week – because she was  convinced she was ugly.

A grown woman saying her primary reason for wanting cosmetic surgery is to ‘look more like Barbie’ would be a cause for concern, even to those with no medical training. 

Yet unscrupulous  surgeons agreed to operate on her  for just this bizarre reason not once, but more than 50 times.

She claims to have spent up to £1 million on these and other cosmetic procedures such as injections of Botox and fillers, telling surgeons she wanted to be ‘perfect’.

‘I often used that word,’ says the 34-year-old. ‘I took a Barbie doll to one medical consultation to show them exactly what I was after. 

'I was unwell; addicted to surgery. But none of those doctors tried to stop me. I think they just wanted my money.’

Alicia is speaking candidly about her predicament as part of our Stop The Cosmetic Surgery Cowboys campaign. 

We are calling for a raft of legislative changes to protect public safety, one of which is that patients must have a 30-minute consultation with their surgeon where they are properly assessed – physically and mentally – before being booked in for cosmetic surgery.

Consultant plastic surgeon Kevin Hancock, of the British Association of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), says: ‘A sizeable minority of those seeking cosmetic surgery aren’t psychologically suitable for a life-changing procedure – particularly if they seem excessively concerned about an imagined defect, or worry their perceived flaw is unduly affecting other aspects of their life.

‘BAAPS surgeons regularly turn away one in five patients, in many cases for mental health reasons, but the sad reality is that, even when we urge them to seek support from a psychotherapist, they may simply continue to shop around until they find a less-conscientious provider who will treat them.’

The association is developing a standardised questionnaire that would flag up those at risk – a tool that could be adopted by all clinics.

Patients would be asked if they’d had multiple operations and assessed for unrealistic expectations. Under these criteria,  multiple areas for concern would have been raised over Alicia.

Since her first breast augmentation when she was just 17 – and she has had 16 such operations – the former model and mother of two has undergone six nose jobs, 11 operations on the skin around her eyes, surgery on her cheeks to add and then remove implants, and a facelift. 

She has also had a rib shortened to give her a slimmer silhouette, her toes shortened ‘so they looked better in heels’, a tummy tuck,  bottom implants and chin implants which were later removed.

Everything else – her home, clothes, even food – was secondary to spending money on more surgery.

At one point, her desperation to change her body led her to have one operation each week. Again, it doesn’t take a degree in psychology to recognise something was seriously amiss. 

‘Apart from my daughter’s education, I spent nothing on anything but surgery. I ate beans on toast and never had a holiday. I even persuaded boyfriends to pay for operations.’

Is she now happy? Far from it. ‘I’ve had so much surgery, my face doesn’t move. I can’t smile properly and can’t breathe through my nose. If I’d never had surgery, I’d be far better looking than I am now.’

Her friends did try to intervene. ‘Even when my daughter begged me to stop having surgery, I carried on. I was convinced the next operation was going to make everything OK, so I didn’t listen.’

She adds: ‘I hold myself responsible, but the doctors who agreed to operate on me when I was clearly not well have a lot to answer for. 

'Now I know the problem wasn’t with my breasts or nose, but how I saw myself. But they always agreed that they could improve me.'

Alicia suffers from body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), also called dysmorphia. A mental illness linked to anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, sufferers obsess over their appearance and have a distorted perception of the way they look. 

Even minor ‘flaws’, such as naturally  uneven features or a small scar, become a source of great distress.

Those with BDD believe they are ‘ugly’ and that others see them in this way, too. 

Patients can become reclusive and often suffer depression and eating disorders. Seeking medical treatment for their perceived defects, such as cosmetic surgery, is another common symptom. And often they will have  multiple operations. 

Alicia says: ‘I was on anti-depressants because I was so upset about what I had done to myself, and it was my psychotherapist who suggested I might have dysmorphia.

'I was sent to rehab, where they treated me like any other addict. I had a lot of psychotherapy and have had to build myself up from scratch.

'I may need surgery again to correct damage caused by too many operations, but I won’t if I can help