EXCLUSIVE: 'I hated myself': Woman In Red star Kelly LeBrock emerges from hiding for first stunning photoshoot in years to reveal the toll drugs and divorce took on her life

EXCLUSIVE: 'I hated myself': Woman In Red star Kelly LeBrock emerges from hiding for first stunning photoshoot in years to reveal the toll drugs and divorce took on her life 
Kelly LeBrock's roles in 1980s movies Woman In Red and Weird Science made her the sexiest woman in the world.
Yet for years the actress has removed herself from the limelight, hiding away at her sprawling Santa Barbara, California ranch. 
And now, speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Kelly reveals that her bitter 1996 divorce from action hero Steven Seagal after nine years of wedlock left her too afraid to leave her home.

Woman in red: Kelly LeBrock, who found fame in the '80s in such films as Woman In Red and was once wed to actor Steven Seagal, has offered a look at her life on a sprawling ranch in Santa Barbara, California

'I admit, I became a hermit,' says Kelly, 53. 'When I split with Steven, the divorce was very ugly, and details of the case were on the evening news. I didn't want my kids seeing it, so I simply got rid of the TV. I moved my kids out of LA so they could grow up with real people—the kids of gas pump attendants, plumbers, and real family people. 
'I had absolutely no self-esteem. I hated myself. I decided to swap my old life in Beverly Hills for a new one in the country, in Santa Barbara.'
She lives in a single-storey farmhouse and spends her evenings riding her horse, Kiwi.

Home on the range: The stunning actress lives in a single-storey farmhouse and does most of the ranch work herself

Red hot: Kelly famously danced over an air vent in the 1984 comedy The Woman In Red

'I feared everything and didn’t want to leave the house,' she says. 'Sometimes I sleep three nights in a row outside with no tent, just under the stars. Just me and my horse. It brings me closer to the earth.
'I grow all my veggies and make my own cheese and yoghurt. It’s bloody exhausting! To work the land full time keeps me so fit that I haven’t worked out in seven years. I clean the pool myself, muck out the pigs and the horses. 
It is a far cry from the model’s British upbringing as Le Brock was born in New York City to an Irish-Scottish mother, Mary Cecilia Traynor and to Harold Arthur Le Brock, an affluent businessman from Lake Champlain, New York.

Reclusive: The gorgeous actress admits her divorce from martial arts star Steven Seagal left her fragile and afraid to leave her home

Staying in shape: Kelly admits that the physical work required to keep her ranch going keeps her physically toned

Horsing around: The brunette brings her horse Kiwi in from their daily ride around the ranch

The family moved to London when she was five, opening art galleries on Duke Street, St. James’, and another in Bond Street, while Kelly was sent to boarding schools in Sussex. 
'I was 15 and a half when I started modeling. It’s a familiar tale, but I was at a party, and some dirty old man saw me and thought I was pretty. The next thing I knew I was on an airplane to the Seychelles to shoot an advertisement for British Airways. My father got me an agent and quickly, to my surprise, my modeling career took off and I became the new face of '70's fashion.'
Kelly became an overnight sensation, appearing in Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and the top magazines of the time, working with such fashion photographers as Richard Avedon and David Bailey.

Sweet Kiwi: The star says that sleeping under the stars with just her horse for company keeps her grounded

Animal person: Kelly grooms her horse and cleans his stall herself

'I decided to move out of England to survive the drug scene and thought New York would be a safer place, but I was mistaken.
'I did take it too far, and when my weight dropped from 135 to 90 pounds my agent, Eileen Ford, called my mother and said, "You better get over here." I took my mother to Studio 54 and we danced all night, but she had no idea why I was so energetic.'
'Back in London I had been sheltered from the real world, but in America I was all alone and this terrified me. In England we were all genuine and nice, then suddenly I went straight to America and it was a foreign land. It was full of dangerous people, and I found it frightening and intimidating.'

Her other baby: Kelly has three children from her marriage to Seagal, but Kiwi's obviously her other baby

Hauling hay: Barn clean-up can be messy but Kelly obviously doesn't mind

Kelly witnessed the underbelly of New York’s drug scene and grew increasingly nervous of her new friends and their wild lifestyles. 

'I had absolutely no self-esteem. I hated myself. I decided to swap my old life in Beverly Hills for a new one in the country'
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When things seemed too bleak for her, Kelly turned her back on modeling and New York, and set her sights on Hollywood. 
'I didn't want to get hooked on heroin and die like some of my friends. I decided to change my lifestyle and quit modeling and go to the next obvious thing, movies.'
Once in California, at age 24, Kelly married aspiring movie producer Victor Drai in 1984. 
'We went to Paris, fell in love and rented a bunch of French movies. We saw Pardon Mon Affaire and decided it was a good film to remake in Hollywood.'
That film became Woman In Red, and Drai cast Kelly in the title role. 
Kelly played the sexy siren Charlotte, Gene Wilder’s love interest, and in one iconic scene she stood atop an air vent that caused her red dress to billow upward in the wind.

Tell-all book: Kelly has spent the last few years taking care of her ranch and writing her memoirs

Racy: The star has revealed insight into her early years as a model in drug-fueled New York society

Woman In Red became a box office sensation, grossing $25,308,147—a large sum for the time, and even won an Academy Award.
'It was a thrilling experience. Not only did it help me cut my teeth on movie making, but it also placed me at the movie’s center, which, I must say, overwhelmed me.'
'After Woman in Red, a few men in Hollywood had their eye on me,' admits Kelly, whose marriage to Victor Drai would end after only two years in 1986.

Painful memories: Kelly admits that writing about the end of her marriage to Seagal was painful, but at least she had her horses to cheer her up

Stay-at-home mom: Kelly says she gave up her movie career to raise children during her years with Seagal, and now that her three kids are well-adjusted adults she's ready to make a comeback

'Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Billy Wilder used to come to the house. Billy once said to me, "If I was a little bit younger, I’d be directing you in a movie." He had directed Marilyn and I was flattered by is interest.'
In 1987, during a trip to Japan, Kelly’s publicist Dick Gutman introduced her to martial artist and aspiring movie actor Steven Seagal in Japan. 
Seagal was there to visit his ex-wife Miyako Fujitani and their two children at the same time as Kelly was shooting a 24-page feature for American Vogue.

Renaissance man: Kelly says that when she first met Steven Seagal, seen here with her in 1990's Hard To Kill, she was swept off her feet by his charms and his many talents

Remarkably, Steven had married La Russa before divorcing Fujitani, committing bigamy.  
'I had spoken to Steven a number of times on the phone but I was going to blow him off.
'I finally said I would have a drink with him and when he came to my room I opened the door he was just standing there, six feet four inches tall, nice looking, slim, he spoke fluent Japanese and he could do acupuncture, chiropractics, sang, played guitar and drums, and could draw.
'There seemed to be nothing he couldn't do. He was an all-round Renaissance man and I was instantly attracted to him.

Yet from the start of their relationship, Kelly soon learned that there might be trouble ahead. Her initially favorable impression of Seagal would soon evaporate and her marriage would tailspin into a horror story.

The husbands: Kelly was married to Victor Drai between 1984 and 1986, seen left the year before they wed in Beverly Hills and, right, with Seagal in 1987 - the year they married - in Westwood, California; they split in 1996

Family portrait: The couple, seen here in 1989 with their first child Annaliza; their marriage produce three children in total

In 1988, Kelly says she suffered a horrendous incident at the hands of Seagal that would change their relationship forever and lead to a stormy divorce. 
'Writing about that experience in my book has been incredibly painful, but I’m relieved the truth will finally come out.'
Kelly says that it was her love for their three children—Dominic, Annaliza and Arissa Seagal—that caused her to stay with Seagal through many explosive and traumatic times.
Kelly has spent the past few years writing a tell-all book and is preparing to make a return to Hollywood. 
'I see kids like Lindsay Lohan going off the rails because she has no one there for her. Lindsay reminds me of a 12 year old, like a little girl stuck in a young woman’s body, with all the drugs and alcohol.'

Ready for her close-up: LeBrock making a promotional appearance in the Velodyne Acoustics booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January