Alexa Chung has admitted she is a “nightmare to date”, saying that she doesn’t like being told what to do and she hates being “penned in”.

In an interview this week with Harper’s Bazaar, Alexa said: “I don’t like being told what to do. And I don’t want to be penned in. I don’t want to feel I have to be anywhere... I am quite restless. It makes me a nightmare to date, I think.”

Alexa, 31, dated Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner from 2007-2011 and also previously went out with fashion photographer David Titlow. She is now seeing Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard, 38. 

The presenter, model and fashion designer also pledged never to use Botox, saying it would look “a bit try-hard”.

“I saw Patti Smith the other night and she definitely hasn’t had any Botox and she looks cool,” she said. 

“I’m not anti, because there are people who have had it done who look really good. If I can’t even be bothered to brush my hair, I don’t think I should start getting face work…  I think it would look a bit try-hard.

“Being excitable and passionate is what makes you look good because if you’re engaged in what’s going on, you radiate youth,” she added.

Alexa, who spoke of her personal style as “a balance between masculinity and femininity”, said that she finds wearing boring clothes a real trial.

“It’s a sexy way to dress because it’s confident. A bad outfit can really get me down,” she said. “If I’m wearing something really normal and boring, it’s like torture.”

The model also said that she has become mellower since hitting her thirties. “I’m less generally anxious,” she said. “And I’ve learned that there are a bunch of themes in life that happen to everyone. So if a friend is going through something, or I am, I think usually it’s fine in the end.”

Alexa, who has a huge following online and admitted she finds it “weird” when she’s not in front of a camera, said that she pays no attention to any negativity she receives on Twitter or Instagram.

“Sometimes I respond, but I try not to,” she said. “I know it happens to everyone, and I don’t pay any attention because it’s not relevant to my life.”

And while she concluded that social media is something “unmistakably important” and “something to be respected”, she said she would “never do anything that wasn’t genuine”.

She said: “Tech companies approach you to hold something in a picture and then say, ‘This is what I want you to write on your Twitter.’ There are people who get away with that and look really cool doing it, but I’m just not one of them.”

Alexa also addressed her multi-faceted profession, saying her career was "a shit-show-free-for-all.”

“I have too many agents and no central person, so I'm the central person and I'm already inclined to be quite scatty, so my life has very little order to it,” she said. “But I love it.”

Photos: Rex Features