Sadie Frost and her mother in 1988 and 2021. Later photo: Pål Hansen / The Guardian. Styling: Andie Redman. Hair and make-up: Desmond Grundy at Terri Manduca
A figurehead of ’90s cool, Sadie Frost was best known as the Vivienne Westwood model before starring in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The daughter of Mary Davidson and psychedelic artist David Vaughan, who died in 2003, Frost began her acting career in 1968 with a Jelly Tots commercial … Like a Virgin) and film production (Set the Thames on Fire). She makes her full-length directing debut with Quant, a documentary about the influence of fashion icon Mary Quant. She lives in London and has four children: Finlay with her first husband, Gary Kemp from Spandau Ballet, and Rafferty, Iris and Rudy with Jude Law.
Mary Davidson
I would have been 40 when this was recorded. We stayed in a small black and white Tudor cottage in Shropshire, getting ready in my bedroom for Sadie’s wedding to Gary. It felt so exciting – lots of bridesmaids walking around. Chaos but really fun.
I was nervous that day because it all happened so quickly. A few weeks earlier, Sadie called me from vacation and said, “Mom, we’ve decided to get married. Can you prepare everything while we’re away? ”I had a couple of weeks to organize everything – the equipment in the middle of the countryside wasn’t that great, but it really turned out to be something special. We had fireworks and my father took them to the altar. He was incredibly proud. But he was always proud of Sadie.
I got pregnant at 16 and loved it. My parents were totally horrified. And rightly so. But I was totally in love with David – he was very different from everyone else I had met. The work lasted two hours – from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. David wasn’t allowed to give birth because we weren’t married, but he came in afterwards, looked at her, and left. I haven’t seen him for 10 days. David was like that. He had psychological problems that I didn’t know about at the time. I was so young and inexperienced; He and a tiny baby were difficult to cope with. He was my first love and it was devastating. But he gave me Sadie.
I had all kinds of jobs before she got here. I was once a wizard’s assistant and always stood on stage as a kid. Sadie was also an actress from the start. As soon as she could walk, she could dance and sing. She wasn’t shy. We lived on Gloucester Avenue in Primrose Hill, north London, and she always performed on the street with her friends.
I never thought Sadie was famous, but the paparazzi got a lot of attention. They even followed me
We didn’t have a lot of money, so I made dresses for Sadie and her sister Sunshine – high-waisted velvet pants with small suspenders. Sadie loved fashion. We visited Carnaby Street and checked out the Quant shop. At school she went through a short period in which she wanted to be straight in order to fit in with all the other children. Then when she was 14 she went punk. Her friend chopped off all of her long hair – my pride and joy, gone! I always said Sadie couldn’t shock me, but she did her best. However, she looked pretty good in her Vivienne Westwood kilts and large boots.
A mother-daughter relationship is always changing and you never stop worrying. It was difficult when her marriage to Gary didn’t work out. I loved him and always will, but that’s life. I never thought Sadie was famous, but the paparazzi got a lot of attention. They even followed me, but I learned not to pay much attention to tabloids.
People say that I and Sadie are similar, but I don’t see it – she has always been so strong and curious. We have had great adventures together. I saw her perform at the Roundhouse in London in 2014 with the Argentine dance group Fuerzabruta. She did acrobatics over my head! Always doing crazy things, always something new. This is sadie.
Sadie Frost
This photo captures such a tender moment – the mother-daughter relationship that you often take for granted. I was 22 and preparing to get married. I thought I knew everything, but I didn’t know what marriage is about. I imagined this amazing princess life in front of me, but it was never going to be that simple.
I always knew our family was a little different because my sister’s name was Sunshine Purple Tara Velvet and my mother dressed us in some spectacular 1960s clothes. Mama was still a child; sometimes it felt like she was more of a sister to me. You and Dad gave me an unconventional, traveling childhood. We stayed on a bus that we drove from Belsize Park to Morocco. We lined up everywhere, from Formentera, in a house without electricity, to the Mull of Kintyre.
When I look at this photo, I see a huge umbilical cord that connects me and my mother
When I was born I had jet black hair and jaundice. When dad came to the hospital, my mom said he looked at me and said, “This is not my baby – she’s ugly.” He was a character, but he was also an amazing man: a lot of my creative influences come from him and its anarchy. He was successful in the 1960s – Dad’s collective (Vaughan, Dudley Edwards, and Douglas Binder) painted Paul McCartney’s Magic Piano and the car on the cover of the Kinks’ compilation album Sunny Afternoon. But he was schizophrenic at a time when no one really talked about mental health. He got acidic when I was about four and never really recovered. He had a breakdown and left my mother; set everything on fire.
Those were crazy times – not least because we had a family of five girls. There were never any quiet moments at home. When I was five, I did mini acting and commercials and loved the attention. When I was 11 I got a scholarship for the Italia Conti stage school. I sang musicals in front of the mirror, cut all my hair, dropped out of stage school and went to the local comprehensive school because I imagined the boy next door who was a punk.
I was brought up not to judge anyone: Mom treats everyone equally, and that’s why I’ve never heard anyone say anything negative about her. I have a prickly side from my father. Looking back on the ’90s, there was so much judgment. Women were too thin, too fat, too shy, too loud, or too drunk. I went through a public divorce, remarried (to Jude Law), and got the spotlight in the press. I was pushed into cars to make it look like I had just stumbled into them. Of course I stumbled sometimes. But that was only 1% of the time. I wasn’t wild. I’ve been doing the healthy things that I do now – I’ve always been a vegetarian, followed an organic diet, and exercised every day. I hate cocktails, can’t drink white wine or champagne, and would get drunk after two glasses. It was the press that chose an angle.
When I look at this photo, I see a huge umbilical cord that connects me and my mother. We’ve gone through a lot of kids, a couple of divorces, and we both know we’re probably better off being single. I would have hated being a Hollywood star because I wanted to be grounded, wanted to be at home. Show up, cook good food and love my family. This is important. Mom taught me that.
