Life after Noel

She's come a long way since being crowned 1988's Miss Holiday Queen, but rock chick Meg Mathews has never forgotten her roots - and last week she was back in Guernsey, catching up with her family. Here, she talks exclusively to Natalie Harrison about life after Noel Gallagher - and why she wouldn't have changed a thing

A year out of rehab, Guernsey-born Meg is on top form, sitting in the happy surroundings of her auntie's St Peter's home.

With seven-year-old daughter Anais playing in the garden outside, a radiant Meg - the only sign of flashiness the Chanel pumps she has on her feet - seems relaxed and talkative.

When she was eight, Meg's dad Stan, a builder, and mum Chris, a secretary - while Meg herself was a pupil at Castel School - took her to South Africa, where they lived for a few years before returning to the island.

'When I came back from South Africa,

I remember finding it quite different.

I had a bit of a South African accent, so I stuck out. Living somewhere like Guernsey, things like that get you noticed.'

And getting noticed is something the 41-year-old has undoubtedly got used to over the years.

After marrying Oasis lead guitarist Noel Gallagher in Las Vegas, the three-year union ended in early 2001.

But happily the relationship bore a daughter, Anais - who has just seen her dad for the weekend - a smiley, playful little girl who seems untainted by life in the limelight.

Although she has no memory of living with her parents when they were a couple, Meg says that Anais doesn't know any different.

'She's never seen us in the same room - she just doesn't associate Meg and Noel together,' she said.

'Anais loves her dad and I'll never say anything bad about him. That's just the way it is.'

And she seems balanced about the situation.

And relations with Noel's family? With his mum Peggy, for example?

'Of course we do the birthdays and the Christmases, but otherwise we don't sit and chat really. I'm sure it's how most families are.'

But through it all, Meg's retained a sense of humour and determination.

Asked if she herself has a partner, she quips that 'it's not a Guernseyman'.

'Though I suppose we could make someone up!' she adds, laughing.

'No, we won't say who it is. If I told you that, that would be an exclusive. Totally.'

And what about children? Wouldn't she like to have more?

Though she says 'never say never', she doesn't think so.

'Anais is like my little buddy,' she says. 'It's great.'

(This is true - Anais has recorded her voicemail message, which says: 'Hi, you've reached my mum's phone. May the force be with you.' How sweet.)

'If I met someone and they didn't have any kids, then maybe I might squeeze one out, but at the moment I'm just really enjoying life,' says Meg.

'Life's just perfect.'

After checking in to rehab a year ago for depression - where she stayed for two months - Meg is philosophical about her experiences.

And it seems apt that she's chosen Guernsey for her chill-out.

'Last year I was in Ibiza and it all went completely wrong,' she said.

'This time, in Guernsey, it's probably a more relaxed holiday, shall we say, compared to years gone by.'

But doesn't she miss the old days?

The champagne, the glitz, the rock 'n' roll parties?

'No, I don't miss it,' she says sincerely.

'I probably started all that when I was 13 and finished when I was 40. So I think I've had a really good time, nothing really bad happened to me, no serious accidents or health problems.'

She says that there comes a time when we all - rock stars included - have to grow up. 'But all those years, going to those mad raves, and being round Oasis, I wouldn't change it for anything,' she says.

'It's all been a really good experience. And it'll be great for a book one day, won't it?'

Ever industrious, her rock 'n' roll lifestyle got a kick-start when, at 18 years of age and at art college in Norfolk, she hitchhiked to London to buy something at Vivienne Westwood - she can't remember what, exactly - and simply never returned.'Whatever it was, I worked in a fish and chip shop every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night to save up for it,' she says.

'I'd just done a one-year foundation course at art college and told my dad I was leaving. And he went mad.

'But I just knew I wasn't going back.'

And in stark contrast to the glamorous existence that was to come, she found herself living on the streets and in Brixton squats.

They don't report that in Heat magazine.

It was that experience of 'roughing it' - she lived with heroin addicts, she says - that led to her now becoming ambassador for Help a London Child.

'I want to help kids who did what I did - just moved to London because they think the streets are paved with gold,' she says. 'But it was a lot safer when I did it - with the punk scene, it was sort of the thing to do.

'When you're young, you have no fear. I always knew that everything was going to be all right and that I had to do it.

'When I got to London, things just got better and better.'

Meg had a squat in the King's Road, which is now probably one of the most expensive addresses in London, and was always surrounded by music and bands - The Cult and Spear of Destiny are among those she mentions.

Fashion was to follow.

'I used to walk down Sloane Street and look in Joseph. I'd peer through the windows at the Gaultier, all these amazing designers, and I knew that I wanted to get there,' she says.

'And then one day I saw a sign in the Joseph window saying ?cashier wanted?.

'I went in, got the job as a cashier and then six months later I was manageress of the shop.'

Meg left school without any real qualifications.

'But I wanted to get into fashion PR and fashion buying,' she said.

'And then I decided I wanted to be an aerobics teacher, so I went to work in a gym. And from working in a gym, just being a receptionist - giving out towels and locker keys - WEA Records had a corporate membership there and the head of A&R said to me that I should be doing music. 'We used to talk about music all the time.'

And so she was assigned to look after the then up-and-coming act Betty Boo - then the label's main priority.

'I used every minute I had there to learn everything I could - and then I left and set up my own music company, Flavor.'

She talks passionately about her time in music, saying that with Flavor she had a really good catalogue, including remix work with Salt 'n' Pepa and Kylie, and promoting hip-hop acts when stations such as Radio 1 were hesitant to play their records.

But since her split with Noel, Meg says she has had little involvement with that scene.

'Music's all changed now,' she said. 'It's all downloading. There's no real indie companies any more - it's really hard out there.'

And so life after Noel led to life - or rather two months - in rehab which, she says, was 'brilliant, the best thing I could ever have done.

'Loads of things become evident that you just don't deal with. From being somebody who was nobody and being thrown in the spotlight for all those years - even walking up the red carpet used to be absolutely petrifying - so you just did things to get you through.

And I just thought, ?that's it, I've had enough now?.

'It didn't feel very natural, but you always got spun into it.

'When I hit 40, with all the pressure to be a size zero and not being in a relationship, even going for a walk was tough.

'People saying to you, ?have your picture taken, appear on the cover of Elle magazine? - it's all great, but at the same time it's all very daunting.'

That's not to say that she's taking it easy nowadays.

Meg's selling her house in north London, to move 'just down the road'.

And yes, she's still 'best friends' with Kate Moss and Sadie Frost, who have been very supportive throughout the trials and tribulations of the past few years.

'They're like family,' she says.

And she's carved quite a name for herself in the world of interiors, citing clients as illustrious as David and Victoria Beckham.

'I'm going to move because it's all very gothic and very dark in the house,' she says.

'Because I've decided to do interiors, I need to show that I can be a bit diverse.

'So I'm doing a house which will be like Miami South Beach meets Primrose Hill. It's all very minimalist and white and rubber floors and stainless kitchens - all completely open-plan.'

Evidently not one to keep things that low key, she's even got plans for a white leather spiral staircase.

So how did it all start?

'The interior work all came by coincidence.

'When I came out of rehab, I thought, ?Oh god, I've got to redo my house?.

'My bedroom was all white, so I thought I'd do it all black, like Japanese lacquer. So I lacquered all the room. I was there with the builder and when I walked in, it was awful - like some gothic student's bedroom. And everyone went to me, ?is this what you want??

'So I said ?yeah?, thinking, ?quick, quick!?, and looked down at my Alexander McQueen skull scarf tied round my handbag and I made out that I'd designed skull wallpaper.

'?It's great!? I said, ?it's going to look really good?.

'I got hold of a friend of mine who knew this wallpaper factory near Heathrow. We had a screen made and made this wallpaper. I did the shoot for Hello! magazine, and we got loads of requests for information about where they could buy it.'

So, back to Guernsey, and to Meg's Auntie Shirley's.

Anais - desperate to jump in her great-auntie's swimming pool but told to wait until the family photo has been taken - is asked by her mum if she'd like to move to Guernsey, to which she immediately replies in the affirmative - as long as she can have 'a field and a horse'.

And any chance of the reformed party queen settling down on the rock?

'I might do, yeah. As long as I could get off the island and could do it financially. It's easy to fly straight to Gatwick, isn't it?'

But then she hesitates and admits that it's a toss-up between here and LA.

'I might do a few years in LA and then come back,' she says.

'Maybe retire around here.'

Who could blame her - at least you're guaranteed the sunshine over there.

But she certainly has great affection for the island. She even finds the parking clocks charming.

'It's a really nice life,' she says. 'All my cousins live here. They all love it.

'I went to the West Show and people kept coming up to me and saying, ?you're Meg, aren't you??

'And then they'd say, ?your auntie's godmother to my daughter?.

'And before I knew it someone else said, ?oh yeah, I work with your Auntie Shirley?, and then all of a sudden there were about 12 people and everyone was related in some way. They either worked or knew each other.'

It's refreshing to see someone in the spotlight so at ease and happy.

She talks proudly of how her Auntie Irene was Miss Guernsey, while her Auntie Shirley came third in the contest another year.

'We haven't done too badly as a family, have we?' says former Miss Holiday Queen Meg, smiling.

And although she's recognised in Guernsey just as much as she is in London, she said she felt completely relaxed here.

During her stay, she took 20 or so members of her family for dinner, comparing the food and service favourably with anything she'd had in a top London restaurant.

'It was superb,' she said.

'It's good to just come back.'

And so Meg is off to be with family again - and Anais is finally free to jump in the pool.

Like mother, like daughter.

A determined pair, it seems.

'Anything I've put my mind to, I've always done,' says Meg.