I'll make my own wedding dress

"It was hilarious to make," says Elizabeth. "Nothing was scripted, although I had a vague guideline for my top-and-tail speeches. I loved it when the judges went backstage and talked about all the dresses and were either mean about people or said how great they were. I wasn't actually meant to be in that bit but I enjoyed it more than anything. I ended up being the boss of those sessions, too." Elizabeth likes being the boss.

How easy was it for her to be mean? "I was very fair and didn't allow favouritism." What was AA Gill like? Did he make any of the contestants cry like Simon Cowell does? "He judged the challenge where contestants had to design a chambermaid's uniform for the Savoy Hotel; he was astonishingly rude about almost all of the efforts, but an excellent judge. Liz Emanuel judged the wedding dresses and she was very good. She has, of course, made some of the most beautiful wedding dresses in the world."

Ah yes, wedding dresses. So, any plans? "I might just get married in an Elizabeth Hurley Beach kaftan. Jewelled, of course. Hand- beaded in India," she says, laughing. "If I had a dress designed for me I'd be in absolute agony," she says. "I wouldn't know who to go to. I have so many friends in the fashion business, and I work with so many fabulous people I'd be in absolute hell. I'd probably make it myself or buy it at Debenhams."

To the casual observer Hurley would seem an obvious choice to front Project Catwalk but she actually isn't as mad about fashion as people might think. I can clearly remember her wardrobe in LA: row upon row of white jeans, white T-shirts, along with a few super-sexy designer dresses from Valentino and Versace.

Hurley didn't want to do the show to start with. She knows reality TV can be cheesy and the new Hurley doesn't do cheesy.

"When my agent telephoned and said I'd been offered the job, I thought it sounded dire and turned it down," she says. But Sky were so determined to get Hurley that even Elisabeth Murdoch [daughter of Rupert, and head of Shine, the company that produced the programme] became involved. "They wore me down and I agreed to watch the US version. I expected to watch it for five minutes and then throw the tapes in the bin but it was excellent. I entered negotiations the next day and then signed on."

She will not divulge her fee but it's well into six figures. I have seen one of the shows and much of her success as a presenter is that she can still identify with the determined ambition of the contestants as they struggle to achieve their dreams. The defining characteristic of Hurley is an indefatigable drive for success and recognition in all she has done.

"It was bad luck that we shot it right through August," she says. "A lot of my friends, such as Valentino and Donatella, would have been guest judges, but they were all on holiday."

Hurley is still modelling and her Estée Lauder contract has just been renewed for the 12th year. She is also an aspiring bikini mogul following the example of Elle Macpherson, who has made an estimated £50 million from starting her own fashion line. Her beachwear sells in more than 12 countries and is about to launch in Brazil. Not bad for a company that won't celebrate its first birthday until April.

Who has been her most surprising client? "It would have to be Mrs Roman Abramovich," Elizabeth says. "I was in the bath last summer, when I heard the most almighty noise, and it was Arun crashing up the stairs to tell me that there was a picture in the Evening Standard of Mrs Abramovich wearing one of my kaftans. They'd only been on sale in Harrods for a week. I was absolutely thrilled."

Strangely, of the two of them, Arun is the more fashion conscious. Before she met him, Elizabeth was barely interested in jewellery. Arun loves reading Christie's catalogues in bed and refuses to set foot on a plane unless he has at least five sets of cufflinks or watches to choose from. How has her own fashion sense changed since they started seeing each other three years ago?

"I think I know what Arun likes on me, and I think I've influenced him. When I first met Arun he didn't have a black tie. He almost never went to dressy events, and if he did, he'd always wear what he calls his 'Indian kit' - a black suit with a Nehru collar and jewelled buttons. Once he started dating me he had to wear a black tie the whole time, so I took him to Richard James and bought him one as a treat. He must have worn it hundreds of times. I like the way he dresses and I always know what dresses he likes me in."

We go downstairs to the sitting room where Arun - who is very popular with all her friends - is decanting a bottle of wine. It says much about the man that he doesn't drink wine but much enjoys sniffing it and serving copious amounts of the best vintages to their friends.

He teases Elizabeth, too, which she loves. He says Elizabeth was able to bring down 45 birds in two drives at a posh shoot in Derbyshire with one of the beautiful pair of Spanish 12-bore guns he gave her for her 40th, but she couldn't hit a feather on her own Boxing Day shoot.

Arun's latest obsession, he tells me, is flying, and Elizabeth gave him a course of flying lessons for Christmas. "It's not as if I don't fly enough," he jokes, "last year, all told, I was in the air for about a month." In February, they tell me, they will be back on the plane again, to India to source fabrics, sequins and ideas for her third collection. She will also be shooting her next Hurley Beach campaign in India in early February.

So they'll be in India around Valentine's Day? Ummmm. That's a cosy coincidence.