The 39-year-old model likes catching up with the “old fellas” and having a beer and a punt on the horses in the Mosman RS Club: the laid-back pub reminds him of being back in England.

He also thinks there is nothing better than the salty air and water of a swim at Balmoral to cure a hangover.

But it was the beauty, privacy and family-friendly nature of Mosman which attracted Smith to the suburb.

The Manchester-born footballer-turned-fashionista has lived in Australia for nine years and appreciates the quiet life on the lower north shore.

“I’ve lived in Mosman for just over a year now; I’m in a great little apartment which has beautiful views of the city,” Smith said.

“Before that I lived in Point Piper and the eastern side of the city, which I found can get a bit hectic and mad.

“I just really like the vibe of Mosman — it’s quiet, relaxed, family-orientated — and you kind of get left alone to do your own thing; it’s a great place.

“I find Mosman very beautiful and I’m very happy I made the choice to live here.”

And while Mosmanites generally respect Smith’s privacy, it’s different when he’s away from home.

Aussies have recognised him in Las Vegas and New York, while others have asked for bizarre favours.

Smith explained: “A girl asked me to autograph her backside once and I said, ‘Well, if I did, which I’m kind of uncomfortable doing, what would be the purpose for it?’ She said, ‘If I like it, I’ll get it tattooed,’ and I said, ‘That’s not a good idea, darling’.

“And someone wrote to me asking for the T-shirt that I sleep in, which is a little bit strange and creepy also, but not as much as someone wanting their buttocks autographed — I think that tops it.”

Smith is even recognised for “not being Kris Smith”. People have mistaken him for a fellow Brit, actor Jason Statham, when he had a shaved head.

“That was a woman who said that in a nightclub, so maybe her vision wasn’t great and there’s a very good chance she was intoxicated. I used to get it quite a lot when I had a shaved head,” he said.

“I get mistaken a lot for not being me. People come up to me — this has happened a lot — they say, ‘You really look like Kris Smith, but I know you’re not him ... he wouldn’t be in a place like this, so you’re not him.’

“I end up showing them my driver's licence just to prove the argument.

“But you know, I’ve been really fortunate; Australia has really taken me in as their own and it’s been brilliant.”

Smith fell into modelling “by accident” when he retired from rugby league almost 10 years ago.

He was talent-scouted while shooting a television commercial which a friend had asked him to appear in.

“It’s funny — I went from people on the rugby league field wanting to take my head off, to people wanting me to keep my head on and take pictures of it!” Smith said.

He recalls learning the “tricks of the trade” as the new kid on the catwalk in his early days in the modelling industry.

“Once I was signed to walk the catwalk in a pair of budgie smugglers which just happened to be kind of see-through,” Smith said.

“People were saying to me, ‘Er, are you going to put anything over those?’ and I said, ‘No, how can I?’

“A couple of the other guys in the show said, ‘Here’s a trick that works well: take the inside of a warm bread roll, then mould it around your privates to create a smooth mound. You won’t see anything from the outside!’

“So, during rehearsals I asked the caterers for a warm bread roll. But all they had were slices of rye.

“I had to work with what they had, so I took the crust off and moulded the bread around myself as instructed.

“Except, as I started walking all the seeds and crumbs started coming apart and chafing me!

“I learnt that rye bread doesn’t protect you and failing everything, just show everything instead!”

Fashion and fans aside, Smith’s seemingly “glamorous” life in the spotlight has been no cakewalk.

Despite his early career as a professional athlete, it offered little preparation for the intense public scrutiny which surrounded his relationship with Dannii Minogue.

The couple announced their separation in 2012 and are still on good terms co-parenting their seven-year-old son, Ethan.

“It was difficult; I had some media as a footballer, but it was nothing like being with Dannii,” he said.

“I’m a pretty private person usually and that was the complete polar opposite, so it was a very hard adjustment.”

But it was even harder navigating media after he an Minogue split.

“That was a tough time,” he said.

“Having relationships when you’re in the spotlight is hard. It’s one thing to write about me, but when people also comment on partners and friends, that’s tough.

“At times I’ve been out with a friend and the media has said I’m in a ‘new relationship’; sometimes those friends are actually already married!

“It’s made me really cautious about getting into relationships as I don’t want to put anyone else through that kind of scrutiny. It can be quite nasty and mean spirited at times.”

Smith confronted his self-doubt when he appeared this year on Channel 10’s I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! The reality television show, a quasi-Survivor, was filmed in a South African jungle.

“That taught me a lot. I learnt about patience; you just can’t rush anything out there. I did a lot of thinking there,” Smith said.

“I had a lot of insecurities when I was younger. I felt like the little fat kid who never believed he was good enough and wasn’t worthy of love and affection.

“Those thoughts were still plaguing me, even in the jungle. I lay there night after night thinking, ‘These demons can eat me alive or I can finally deal with them. I can’t run away from them any longer.’

“That began a process of addressing my fears step by step. I learnt to value myself and rationalised that I had a lot of great qualities and that nobody’s perfect.

“The experience turned my life around and for that I’m grateful.”

Smith admits he feels insecure about his looks

Smith said he was fortunate to have shed the excess weight when he was younger.

“I sought help because I didn’t really know what to do; I did not know how to start losing the weight and I was kind of stuck in a rut,” he said.

“But I ended up quite lucky: I just lost my appetite at one point and I stopped eating the wrong things — not everybody can do that.”

Another unexpected facet of Smith’s life is constant knee pain: he was diagnosed with osteoarthritis (OA) in both knees 10 years ago and will eventually have knee replacement surgery.

The problem started in Smith’s childhood and was compounded by his dedication to rugby league, which put a lot of pressure on his knees.

“I went through a lot of rapid growing pains which affected my legs, so I needed knee operations when I was 17 and 20 to put in a graft of my hamstring and another to put in a plastic insertion which acted like a ligament,” he said.

“Playing rugby league ... my knees would get so sore after games, so I’d put a lot of ice packs on them afterwards.

“However, from time to time I’d tear the meniscus in a knee or chip some bone off, so at the end of every season I needed an arthroscopy on one or both knees where they’d scrape out and clean the area.

“So, when I was also diagnosed with OA later on it wasn’t too much of a surprise.”

Smith stays as active as he can, despite his daily knee pain, a constant throbbing or aching.

“I have to sit in a certain way and arrange my knees at certain angles to ease the pain as much as possible,” he said.

“I still train in the gym a lot, I swim, play golf and I like to go on walks.”

Smith has been using a new type of knee brace from Ossur to help relieve his pain in the past couple of months.

“They’ve made a huge difference in how far I can comfortably walk. Now I can walk the length of the golf course instead of taking a cart,” he said.

Smith even wore the knee braces while walking the 96km Kokoda Track to raise money for charity last month.

His group completed the difficult trek in three-and-a-half days, instead of the usual eight, and he was pleased to have done it with his “dodgy knees”.

“I gained a new-found respect for the soldiers who walked it. We were carrying 10kg

backpacks which was hard enough — they were doing it with 25kg packs day in day out,” Smith said.

“It was also inspiring to walk alongside the local porters. While we were complaining about it being hard under foot, two of the porters walked the trail in thongs and one of them in bare feet!

“It gave me a new perspective on life and what can be achieved.”

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