She might be closer to 50 than 40, but Elizabeth Hurley is looking better than ever.  The star showed off her amazing figure in the black-and-white two-piece to promote her swimwear line.  The Gossip Girl actress also modeled a red-patterned bikini in the shoot for January’s Zest magazine, out December 12, 2011.  Elizabeth Hurley features as guest editor of the latest issue of the glossy health and beauty magazine for women, Zest.  The magazine also features Hurley, whom Zest hails as “the ultimate bikini icon for real women”, as the cover model.  Both are a first for the magazine, which has never before had a celebrity guest either edit or appear on its front page.

In addition, the 46-year-old model has revealed in a new interview that she does not believe ageing has anything to do with ‘looking less good’, proving her point by shedding her clothes for a sexy bikini shoot.  She said that she loves women looking fabulous and she does not think growing older means looking less good.  For her, it is less about trying to looking younger and more about making sure you look your absolute best.  However, she said that without a doubt, once she hit 40 he has to make more effort and it was not until then she realized how much easier it was when she was younger.

Crediting a good amount of sleep for maintaining her youthful looks, Hurley added that back then, she could look pretty good on three hours sleep.  According to her, she now looks like a lunatic if she does not get at least double that.  She said that in her 20s, she used to be able to exist on coffee, cigarettes and crisps, but again, a couple of days of that now and she would look and feel really scary.  While Hurley stays slim with a regular exercise plan, she admits it can sometimes be hard to stick to her own regime.  She said that she put herself under pressure to remain slim because she still models her own bikinis but it is much more difficult to feel motivated in the gloomy winter.  According to her, she wraps herself up and tries to walk everyday with her dogs and sometimes force herself to run a bit but she hates it.  She said that she loves Pilates and yoga but again she is more likely to do them in the spring and summer.

Hurley also credits her sportsman fiancé Shane Warne for keeping her motivated when it comes to exercise, adding that Shane is very disciplined when he has to be but, bizarrely, she eats at least three times more than him because she is far greedier and think about food all day long.  She said that he is naturally very athletic because he has been professional sportsman for over 20 years adding that he keeps threatening to make her run with him but she has resisted so far.  When it comes to her diet plan, Hurley says she is relatively relaxed with what she eats – but always makes sure that it is organic.

Born June 10, 1965 in Basingstoke, Hampshire, Elizabeth Jane Hurley is an English model and actress who became known as a girlfriend of Hugh Grant in the 1990s.  In 1994, as Grant became the focus of worldwide media attention due to the global box office success in his film Four Wedding and Funeral, Hurley accompanied him to the film’s Los Angeles premiere in a plunging black Versace dress held together with gold safety pins, which gained instant media attention.

Hurley is the younger daughter of Angela Mary and Roy Leonard Hurley.  Her father was a Major in British Army while her Anglican mother was a teacher at Kempshott Infant School.  She has an older sister, Kate, and a younger brother, Michael James Hurley.  Hurley was educated at local schools including Kempshott Infant School, Kempshott Junior School, and the Harriet Costello School.  Aspiring to be a dancer as a young girl, she took ballet classes and later briefly studied dance and theatre at the London Studio Centre.  While in her teens, she became involved with punk fashion, dying her hair pink and piercing her nose.  She also reportedly associated with the New Age Travellers in her youth.

Hurley has been associated with the cosmetics company Estée Lauder for over fifteen years since the company awarded Hurley her first modeling job at the age of 29.  They have featured her as a representative and model for its products, especially perfumes such as Sensuous, Intuition, and Pleasures, since 1995.  As an actress, her best known cinematic works to date have been as Vanessa Kensington in Mike Myers’ hit spy comedies, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and as the Devil in Bedazzled (2000).  Hurley currently owns an eponymous beachwear line.

At age 21, Hurley got her first film role in the 1987 film Aria, after having attended the London Studio Centre on scholarship.  Hurley’s role in the film Remando al viento (a.k.a. Rowing In the Wind) that same year also starred her future boyfriend Hugh Grant.  One year later, Hurley received critical acclaim for her role as Christabel Bielenberg in the BBC miniseries Christabel.  Hurley gained some recognition in the United States for her role in the 1992 action film Passenger 57, starring Wesley Snipes. Although it was a Hollywood movie, she was still having difficulty receiving quality roles and consequently returned to England.
Hurley founded a film production house, Simian Films, with Hugh.  She coproduced Extreme Measures in 1996 and Mickey Blue Eyes in 1999, both of which starred Hugh.  Her acting career and public profile skyrocketed after her appearance in the first Austin Powers film in 1997.  Since then, she has appeared in about 10 more films and was ranked as the fourth greatest British film actress in the Orange Film Survey of 2001.

After a 13-year relationship, Elizabeth and Hugh Grant parted ways in 2000, triggering rumors that the breakup stemmed from a disagreement over having children together.  Liz began a romance with millionaire movie producer Stephen Bing in 2001 and gave birth to a son, Damian Charles, on April 4, 2002.  Bing initially denied that he was the baby’s biological father, claiming that he and Liz had a non-exclusive relationship.  DNA testing has since proven that Bing is indeed the child’s father, although he and Liz are no longer romantically involved.  In March 2007, Elizabeth married Indian textile magnate Arun Nayar, whom she had been dating since 2003, in a lavish ceremony.

Elizabeth Hurley Photo Gallery