JANICE DICKINSON has credited the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father for sustaining her career - because it made her determined to succeed.

The former supermodel channelled the inner turmoil caused by her dysfunctional upbringing into her modelling, but still struggled with bulimia, alcoholism and an addiction to cocaine despite her success.

She says, "I was told on a daily basis by my father that I would never amount to anything and that I looked like a boy. The secrets of the abuse almost killed me. I kept the secret of incest, of beatings until I went into therapy. "I later had to fight like hell to convince model agencies I was beautiful in my own Polish half-breed way. They kept telling me I was ‘too ethnic’ or that my lips were too big."