Naomi Campbell celebrates her 40th birthday
Left: A teenage Naomi Campbell back in 1989, aged 19, and most recently, at the Cannes Film

It is an age when many celebrities and superstars prefer to forget their birthday - and some, in fact, do. But the British supermodel, Naomi Campbell, is hitting "The Big Four-0" tomorrow - and she doesn’t care who knows it.

Campbell is planning to celebrate her fortieth birthday with a sensational party on the French Riviera, funded by her Russian millionaire boyfriend, Vladimir Doronin. The date will mark a double celebration for the supermodel, as it is also the first anniversary for the couple’s relationship.

Doronin has reportedly told friends the birthday bash will be full of surprises and bigger than Simon Cowell’s 50th birthday party last October.

Guests are expected to be flying in from all over the world, but with the Cannes Film Festival in full swing, many star invitees and friends of Naomi Campbell, may well be there already.

One present the birthday girl undoubtedly did not want was the news she may be summoned to the war crimes tribunal investigating Liberia’s former president, Charles Taylor, following allegations she had received a “blood diamond” from him.

By Hilary Alexander