Claudia Schiffer had to hire a security guard for her underwear

Claudia Schiffer has revealed she required protection for her smalls because when she was on the catwalk, she'd come back to find her garments missing.

The 49-year-old German supermodel told the May issue of ELLE magazine - of which she is the cover star: "When I was out on the runway, I'd come back and constantly my underwear would be gone - my bra, my knickers ... gone!"

The blonde beauty was one of the first supermodels in the 1990s to have major success, alongside the rest of the group dubbed the Big Six; Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and Tatjana Patitz.

And she has recalled how people would go to extreme lengths to get pictures of them.

She added: "It was insane ... like being like a rock star. You couldn't get to your car unless a path was carved for you. People would cut holes in the fashion tents and try to take pictures of us. We had security at every fashion show."

Claudia - who turns 50 in August - has no qualms about ageing and insisted it's the right thing to do to "hand over" the "beautiful" baton to the "next generation", and added that she is going to age naturally.

She said: "I've had many wonderful compliments in my time. But then you get to the next stage and you move on. You don't have to be called [beautiful] your entire life.

"It's a nice memory, but then the next generation starts and you hand over. For me, it's a natural thing to do ... to hand over, to not be envious or jealous."

"As a matter of fact, I can't think of anything worse right now than if you said, 'There's a magic pill and it's going to make you look 20 again.'"

Meanwhile, Claudia revealed that her biggest regret is not being in George Michael's 1995 music video for Freedom, with her fellow models.

She told the publication: "Oh, the George Michael video where everyone participated ... I was working with a lot of high-end brands at that time and I just thought, that doesn't fit with the strategy right now."

"It [missing the opportunity to be in the video] was stupid."