BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Who doesn't have a belly button?

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Who doesn't have a belly button?: "The newspapers call it the 'riddle of the £2.5m beauty'. The beauty in question is Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova. The riddle is her non-existent belly button.

Its absence was noticed this week when the 24-year-old graced a US catwalk for lingerie giant Victoria Secret. While most of us have an 'outie' or an 'innie', Ms Kurkova has a smooth indentation (although sometimes a tummy button is airbrushed onto her photos in post-production).

...

Ms Kurkova has not spoken publicly about how she came to have a smooth navel, and all her agent will say is 'she's not an alien'.

Some have no belly button as a result of the surgery needed to correct abdominal problems at birth, often either an umbilical hernia, or a condition known as gastroschisis - born with the stomach and intestines poking through a hole in the abdominal wall.

This is what happened to Rob Swainson, 26, of Bournemouth, who spent his very first hours in surgery to rectify this unfortunate mistake of anatomy. As a result, he has a cross-shaped scar in the middle of his tummy instead of a belly button.

"I thought about having one constructed when I was getting interested in girls, but not for long," he says, adding that people are more surprised by his scar than his lack of a navel. "You only have to look at Michael Jackson to realise it's probably best to live with what you've got."

"