Carly Simon on turning down Donald Trump: 'I thought he was kind of repulsive'

The singer-songwriter talks candidly about her friendship with Jackie Onassis, being humiliated by Harvey Weinstein and why she has no time for the US president

Carly Simon somehow appears both brittle and unbreakable as she opens the door to her hotel room in Boston, Massachusetts, where a publicist hovers discreetly. She is wearing a blue sweater, blue jeans and a blue scarf and is smiling broadly. Her hair is shoulder length with the familiar low fringe. She puts on a pair of glasses; lukewarm hotel tea is ordered and poured.

The singer-songwriter is chatty and charming. She says she has just been listening to the audio version of her latest memoir, Touched by the Sun, about her friendship with Jackie Kennedy Onassis, the widow of former president John F Kennedy and the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. It is read by Elizabeth McGovern, who plays the Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey. That is fine with Simon, a fan of British TV, including Downton and Last Tango in Halifax.