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Exclusive: Tracey Emin on turning 50 and finding inner calm

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Groundbreaking artist Tracey Emin has confessed that she is planning on leading a quieter life.During a revealing interview with HELLO! Magazine to mark her landmark 50th birthday, Tracey said that she now just wants to concentrate on her work. "I am actually quite old fashioned," she said. "I love fun and I am notorious for throwing a good party but I think at my age there should be some decorum.

Tracey Emin

"I don't think I will be celebrating many more. I want to ease down from that sort of thing and concentrate on my work. If that is going well, everything else falls into place. "I am not married, I don't have children, I am totally financially independent and all I want to do is enjoy my work, which gives me the ultimate pleasure in life. "And the artist says she no longer regrets not marrying or having children as her art is all she needs to lead a fulfilling life. "I doubt I would have done what I have done if I had had children. It has been bad enough with my cat Docket – demanding, demanding..." she joked, adding: "When you have children, you immediately have a sense of purpose.

I don't have the benchmarks that a mother has – watching her children grow, the grandchildren, knowing that it has all been worth it – which is why work and art is so important to me. Art is what keeps me going. Art is my lover, my husband, my children – everything." And she admits that looking after her health and welfare is the top priority.

HELLO! Magazine

"I am taking much better care of myself these days," she said. "Every winter I go to a detox clinic in Austria for three weeks. I don’t drink coffee and I eat healthily. I am getting into the mindset of how I want to be for the rest of my life. I am so much more contented in my life now. "To read more of the interview with Tracey, including her thoughts on her most controversial pieces of art, how close she came to adopting a child and what she thinks of the Royal Family, pick up  issue 1285 of HELLO! Magazine.

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