Michelle Mone is the undisputed queen of sexy lingerie, best known for her uplifting Ultimo bras. Her highly successful Scottish-based company, MJM International, sells women’s undies all over the world and Michelle has won award after award. Not bad for someone who grew up in the east end of Glasgow, whose only brother died at 13, who left school at 15 without a qualification to her name and is still in her thirties.

“I always wanted my own business,” she says. “When I was ten, I ran a newspaper delivery service which employed other children. Business always turned me on.”

She recalls that her friends had Duran Duran posters on their bedroom walls while she had Richard Branson. But Michelle had to grow up fast, forced to leave school to support her family when her father woke up one morning paralysed at the age of 38.

Aged 19, Michelle (on the left of picture) married Michael — now the company’s managing director — and at 20 had her first child. She returned to work, running a sales and marketing team at 22, but was made redundant when her employers were taken over.

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It was shortly after this that she had her brainwave, when she went to a dance wearing the sort of uplift bra that owes more to engineering than comfort. She decided to invent a superior version and Ultimo was born – launching in Selfridges, London, a month after her third child was born. The store sold six weeks’ worth of stock within 24 hours.

Other bestsellers followed, notably a backless, frontless bra called, with good reason, the Miracle Body. Publicity flowed in, too, especially when MJM signed Rachel Hunter, Rod Stewart’s ex, to take over from the singer’s current partner Penny Lancaster as the face of Ultimo. “Rod called me a cow and the story generated £45 million worth of PR and even made headlines in Hong Kong,” says Michelle. “It was the PR coup of the century.”

Michelle works long and hard: “I’m very full-on. I go home, put the kids to bed, and then at midnight, the Hong Kong office opens. I do get tired, but I wake up every day with a smile, and if I didn’t, I’d hang up my bra.

“I run the family like a business. The kids all have key performance indicators which we discuss at family meetings: did this get done? Was homework OK? Did Bethany get to Brownies?

“Working with Michael could put our marriage under pressure, but we have come through bad times, such as when a distributor ran off with a lot of money. We treat each other like fellow directors and never let our relationship into the boardroom.”

Michelle has an upfront relationship with her PA, Laura Mair: “We are extremely close. She’s the only person in the company who really knows how I think and what makes me tick. When I’m down, she knows how to cheer me up.

“All the normal rules go out of the window – we shout and scream at each other like something out of EastEnders. But if she left, it would be like cutting off my right arm.”

Laura became a PA by accident. Like Michelle, she was made redundant from a sales job: “I then temped and started working with Michelle four years ago. She’s a legend locally. She’s the same age as me and has the most terrific drive. She’ll have ideas, and I think ‘Wow!’ I have a suitcase permanently ready for her and she flies all over the world.

“My challenge is to be one step ahead, to make sure her babysitting is covered and that she’s fully briefed. She’s in huge demand and does a lot of speaking. We’re in constant touch and there’s 100 per cent trust between us.

“I like to come into work before everyone else at 7.15am, to get ahead. Michelle is a night bird and I come in to a lot of e-mails. At the other end of the day, I tend to leave when Michelle does. I would never go if she was still in the office, in case something was needed.

“I have no idea how Michelle does what she does, but I do know I could never go back to a normal job.”

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