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A 'real-life Barbie doll' is so addicted to tanning she sneaks behind her husband's back and gets up in the dead of night just to get her sunbed fix every day.

Sarah Willman has been tanning for 20 minutes, five days a week, since she was 14.

After each session she will then cake fake tan on top to make sure she hasn't missed a bit.

The part-time model admits she suffers from low-self esteem and tans to feel better, but her family and friends are too scared to ask her to quit for fear of driving her away.

She first hit the sunbeds at the age of 14, and became known as Malibu Barbie at beauty college when her addiction began to spiral out of control.

(Image: Barcroft)

But despite insisting she would never let her own children go down the same route, the mum-of-two from North Dakota in the United States, says she just cannot leave the sunbeds behind.

"I can't quit, I've tried. But I'm scared of getting cancer," she told the Huffington Post.

"I think my mom worries, because if I were my mom, and if was my daughter, I wouldn't be happy with it.

"I do not want me daughter tanning. I don't my children to ever step in a tanning bed.

"I starting using sun beds when I was 14, but I tanned a lot more when I was 16 or 17, as it was easier to sneak away from my parents.

"I felt like I needed to be this perfect, skinny, tanned girl. I was trying to fit in and be cool and popular.

"If the tanning salon was open at 11pm at night, I'd be there.

"In another town where I lived in, it opened up at 5am and I would go before college.

"Then I got memberships at two tanning salons.

"I put fake tanner on top of my normal tan in case there are spots I didn't get.

"You can't always get tanned in certain areas, it's just impossible."