American businesswoman and TV presenter Martha Stewart will be one of the models on the cover of this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue at the age of 81, a record age, CNN and USA Today reported.

“I love that photo,” Stewart said of the cover image, which was released Monday during NBC News’ “Today” show.

The photos were taken during a photo shoot in the Dominican Republic, and Stewart says that “when I heard I was going to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, I thought, ‘Oh, that’s really cool, I think I’m going to be the oldest person ever ever appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine.

“I don’t really think about age, but I thought it was a pretty historic moment,” she added.

“I think we should all think about living well, about living a successful life, not about aging. The whole aging thing is so boring,” she added.

How Martha Stewart prepared for a Sports Illustrated photo shoot

However, she revealed that she had taken some steps to prepare for the photo shoot.

“I didn’t starve, but I didn’t eat bread and pasta for several months. I went to Pilates every day (…) I still live a clean life. Good diet, good exercise, good skin care and all that, but it was a lot of fun, she added.

“We meant it when we said it was going to be an epic year,” Sports Illustrated said on the magazine’s Twitter page.

Martha Stewart, a former model, has always cultivated the image of a person of independent spirit. In 2004, she spent five months in prison on charges of crimes related to illegal transactions in the stock market.