Caprice is feeling brave these days and she knows why. ‘Oh my little friend that I had right here,’ she says, tapping her own forehead lightly. ‘My tumour. That was really scary. That changes everything.’

The supermodel and entrepreneur is about to star in a film she’s produced and financed herself: the lush, romantic and very snowy A European Christmas on Channel 5. But Caprice says she would not have had the guts to start making movies on her own without the courage gained from surviving the worst days of her life. 

‘It’s such a huge blessing. The bull**** doesn’t mean anything to me any more. The parties, which I used to love, mean nothing to me. It’s all about my family now. I do what I love to do as work, and that’s it. I’m not scared any more.’

Caprice was training for the winter sports reality show The Jump seven years ago when a scan revealed the terrible news. ‘When somebody says you have a brain tumour you think, ‘Oh my God, I’m gonna die. I have two three-year-olds and I’m gonna die.’ That was awful, a tough time.’

She has two sons, Jett and Jax, with her husband, the financier Ty Comfort. ‘The doctor said, ‘It’s not cancer but it’s a grower.’ That’s just as dangerous, evidently. You could wake up one day and the whole left side of your body will never move again, so you’ve got to get rid of it.’

Caprice appeared on the covers of hundreds of magazines during the 1990s and Noughties including Vogue, Playboy and Sports Illustrated

There were huge risks involved in the treatment for meningioma. ‘This is brain surgery. There’s a chance you’ll wake up and something won’t work, something will have gone wrong.’ 

The operation took seven hours and involved temporarily removing part of her skull to remove the tumour. Coming round afterwards was bizarre, she says. ‘I wasn’t aware how extreme it would be. When I woke up there were tubes coming out of everything, I was in the intensive care unit but it looked like the Starship Enterprise.’

Nevertheless, her face lights up when she remembers the realisation she was going to be OK. ‘That was one of the happiest moments of my life. I said, ‘Thank you God for giving me this extra shot.’ I said thank you to my Dad, because he’s up in heaven looking after me.’

Caprice Bourret was born in Hacienda Heights, a suburb of Los Angeles, in 1971. She appeared on the covers of hundreds of magazines during the 1990s and Noughties including Vogue, Playboy and Sports Illustrated. When lad mags were huge in Britain, Caprice was their darling. After a few bit parts in Hollywood she moved to London and acted in Hollyoaks and spy thriller The Dream Team with Roger Moore, and appeared on celebrity versions of Big Brother and Come Dine With Me, and on Dancing On Ice.

She took control of her image at the start of the century, forming her own company and launching a lingerie range with Debenhams. She later bought back the licence and By Caprice expanded into homeware and other products. She still models her line of underwear with Peacocks. She’s said to be worth around £24million.

Her operation took seven hours and involved temporarily removing part of her skull

After years in the gossip columns she met and settled down with financier Ty in 2011. They live in London but also have a gorgeous villa in Ibiza, which is where she is speaking today, out on the terrace in the late-season sunshine the day after celebrating her 53rd birthday.

Caprice says after the operation she began to reassess. ‘Everything changed in my professional life, my personal life, with some friends. I stopped going out as much. I just wanted people around me who meant something to me, who brought something to me and I brought something to them. It wasn’t just about me any more,’ she says. ‘In the past it was always me, me, me. I used to believe my own BS. I’m the first to admit it.’

What difference did this rethink make? ‘I’ve done a lot more charities. It’s about giving back because I was given a second chance. That may sound a bit cheesy, but it’s real when it happens to you.’

Making movies is part of the new approach, she says. ‘I thought, ‘I’m gonna make this world a better place.’ It may not be in a massive way but I do have a platform, I’m gonna do what I can.’ That meant turning her back on old ways. ‘I choose not to do reality television any more; some of it’s very toxic. I’m doing nice, cheesy, wonderful Christmas movies and romances that are very formulaic. You know how it ends, but boy do you feel good after you see it.’

Why take on the huge challenge of financing, producing and starring in the films? ‘Nobody would take me on,’ she says with typical frankness. ‘The supermodel stereotype. I couldn’t even get an acting agent. And I just thought, ‘You know what? S*d this, I’m gonna do it myself.’

New movie A European Christmas stars Caprice as a producer and Philip Boyd, who plays a retired actor

It’s charming to hear that very British phrase spoken in an American accent. ‘I’m in the fortunate position I can finance this, but it’s still a lot of money and I wanted minimal risk. I surrounded myself with people who have done a lot in this space.’

A European Christmas stars Caprice as Ivy, a producer who once had a hit with a Christmas movie. Now she’s struggling in her life and career so she’s trying to make another, seeking to recapture the old magic by tracking down the star of the first film Hunter, played by Philip Boyd, who has retired from acting and returned to his native Serbia to bring up his two boys in peace. As the catchline says, ‘Can Ivy open her heart to love and rediscover the true meaning of Christmas?’

The rights have sold around the world and Caprice is preparing to shoot a Scottish festive movie in Aviemore in January, but why focus on Christmas? ‘Because it sells. I am a businesswoman. I’m not about to sit here and lie to you: I love making money. But whatever I do, I have to have a passion and a love for it. And I’m obsessed with Christmas.’

What’s the evidence for that then? ‘We have four Christmas trees in the house. I’m already listening to Christmas music. We hit my family in Los Angeles first, then my husband’s family in Florida on the 26th, then we also have a celebration in London after New Year. So the kids love it. They get very excited, those spoiled little rascals.’

Jett and Jax are 11 years old now. One of them was born to a surrogate after several failed attempts at IVF, while the other was conceived naturally – to his mother’s astonishment – and born just a month after his brother. Caprice has never said which is which but does say, ‘I was so naive before I had children. I thought, ‘My life isn’t gonna change. I’ll have nannies.’ But when you have those kids, you don’t want the nannies. The unconditional, crazy love you have for your kids is indescribable. You would take a bullet for your children without even thinking about it.’

She has two sons, Jett and Jax, with her husband, the financier Ty Comfort

The boys make their acting debut in this film. ‘People think the acting world is so glamorous. They said, ‘We want to get involved. We want to take acting lessons.’ I said, ‘OK, why don’t you be in my next movie?’ They said, ‘Oh my goodness, we could tell all our friends, we’ll be on TV, we’ll be famous.’ By the second day they said, ‘No, Mommy, we’re gonna stick with finance like Daddy said.’

She sounds pleased by this. ‘I told my husband, ‘You see? There was a method to my madness.’ Acting is hard work. They don’t understand unless they experience it. So they did, and now they’re out. They’re thinking about finance. Good choice. That’s very sensible.’

The other surprising thing that happened after the boys were born and the tumour was removed was that she married Ty, despite years of resistance. ‘I always said, ‘Why do I need a piece of paper to validate how I feel about someone?’ Then we had the boys and it became important to me. So we paid £45, went to the registrar with our kids, got married and went back to work the same day.’

Was it worth doing? ‘It did feel different. How naive of me to think it would not have done. I am so independent, but when you’re married it’s so lovely. He’s my best friend, my husband, the love of my life. And it only gets better,’ she says. ‘It’s a lot of work. I’m not saying everything is amazing all the time, it’s work in progress, you’ve got to put a lot into it, but I’m glad I waited to find the right one. I never compromised, ever.’

She once famously said keeping a man happy was simple. ‘Honey, don’t stop with the fireworks. All you have to do is feed them, give them compliments and sex. That’s it, we’re good.’ Isn’t it a bit of a pressure to think you’ve got to be having terrific sex all the time in your fifties? She laughs and clarifies, ‘I didn’t say terrific sex. It doesn’t have to be terrific.’ That’s a relief.

A European Christmas is unashamedly romantic. ‘There’s a formula to Christmas movies, you’ve got to have all the elements. These are wholesome movies.’

The location was recommended by a friend from Serbia and it’s spectacular, but with a month to go the forecast said there would be no snow. ‘That was the biggest drama in my life,’ says Caprice, throwing up her hands in mock horror. ‘With Christmas movies you categorically have to have snow. I was freaking out, thinking, ‘Oh my God, the movie is finished.’

‘So for the second time in 20 years I started praying. I was like, ‘God, I promise you x, y and z if you just give me snow.’ And as God is my witness, the only three days it snowed in the whole season was when I was there. How crazy is that?’ She shakes her head in wonder. ‘By the way, the snow melted two days later.’

Did she keep her bargain? ‘I did. The charity I gave to was happy. And I stopped screaming as much at my kids. I’m biting my tongue when they drive me crazy.’

Caprice will also star in the Scottish movie, but only act as producer in others that follow. ‘My whole life I’ve had to think about how I look, so I’m carving out another path [off screen] that could go on until I’m 90.’

Why does she even need to work? ‘I’m a grafter. It comes from having had nothing growing up. We wake up and we have goals and aspirations and passions. Can you imagine waking up with none of that?’

Caprice can’t help returning to a theme. ‘Another reason I work is that I like making money, period. You could say, ‘Oh, how gross. You’re so American. That’s so crass.’ OK, whatever. But I bet you like making money too,’ she says with a broad smile. ‘I like my independence and being able to make a difference.’

She runs her fingers through her long blonde hair and sits back in the Ibizan sunshine, content. There’s a moment in her new movie when her character Ivy says, ‘I know it took me a while, but I figured it out… the happy ending.’ Is that true in her life too, after all the scares of the last few years? ‘100 per cent,’ says Caprice. ‘Out of something bad has come something so good, so rewarding.’

• A European Christmas airs later this month on Channel 5.