'I can't tell you it's not confronting.' Deborah Hutton on her changing relationship with her face.

Deborah Hutton's career was built on her face. 

That is the strange reality the 61-year-old model and presenter has had to reconcile with over her four-and-a-half decades in the public eye. Since she appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan in 1978, her face has been used as currency; it can sell magazines and clothes and products, even entire brands.

Of course, Hutton has expertly leveraged that into other avenues of success. She's been able to flex her talents as a television presenter (think prime-time 90s and 2000s hits like Looking Good and Location, Location), a spokesperson, a writer and editor (she worked with The Australian Women's Weekly for close to a decade), a homeware entrepreneur, and, more recently, hat designer. 

But that fact, that her face sparked it all... well, it's meant Hutton has a rather unique relationship with her reflection; one that's been reshaped in recent years by two forces: skin cancer and ageing. 

Deborah Hutton on the cover of Cosmo in 1981. Image: Bauer ANZ.

"I may never work again."

Speaking to Mamamia's No Filter podcast, Deborah Hutton recalled the moment in 2011 when she was told that she'd require surgery to remove skin cancer from her upper lip. 

She was the face of Qantas and Holden at the time, and had several projects lined up for Channel 9. It was there — her career — where her mind first leapt.

"I rang Mum, and I said, 'Mum, I've got this thing on my face and I don't know what's going to happen but I may never work again,'" Hutton said. "That was my first thought. Like, sh**! It's my face, and they're going to start carving into it.

"It was just really confronting, but confronting more for my career, for my work, because [my face] was just everything I did."

Listen to Deborah Hutton speak to Mia Freedman on No Filter. Post continues after audio. 

But rather than hide from the spotlight, Deborah ultimately chose to leverage it. She gave media interviews at the time urging readers to have skin checks, to not be complacent about sun protection. And then, when she underwent a second surgery nine years later to remove two basal cell carcinomas in the same spot, she shared a photograph of the scar on social media.

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It went viral and ultimately landed her back on the cover of The Australian Women's Weekly.

"It's given me a real reason for my life now, a purpose, and probably something that means a lot more than what I've done in the past," she said. 

"I feel like I can actually I can do something I can help people. I can create awareness, I can raise money. And it's a time in my life where I'm ready to do that, you know? I've peaked in my career, and I'm looking forward and I'm going, fantastic! I'm in the right place."

Perhaps it's her experience of cancer, perhaps it's just the passage of time, but Deborah has also settled into a place of optimism about what ageing means for her appearance.

There was a time when she tried to mask it with Botox, starting with injections in her forehead.

"I came out looking so ridiculous. I had these eyebrows like Jack Nicholson. And I just thought, oh my god, I do not look like me," she said. "And then over a number of years, I just thought I'll just try a little bit, and a little bit, and a little bit ... And then I thought, there's no difference."

Hutton ultimately stopped, unable to find a happy medium. She turned instead to simply taking care of her skin rather than altering it. 

"I catch myself sometimes if someone's taking a photo, and [I see] these angles and all these wrinkles that are coming in my neck, and I can't tell you a lie to say it's not confronting," she said. "Because after having to look at my face for 40 years and bring the beauty out that's going to sell stuff, now you're going, OK, that face is starting to head south."

Still, she wouldn't change it. Not anymore.

"I like my face, and I like it ageing," she said. "There are lines there that I have earned."

For more No Filter, go to mamamia.com.au/podcasts/no-filter. 

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.