Tracey Emin says her artwork My Bed would be 'tidy, clean and boring' if she made it today

Dame Tracey Emin has said her controversial 1999 Turner Prize nominated artwork, My Bed, would be "tidy", "clean" and "boring" if she made it today.

The sculpure, depicting a dirty, disheveled and debaucherous bedroom scene - complete with cigarettes, alcohol, underwear and condoms - caused a stir when it was first shown at London's Tate Gallery, almost 30 years ago.

It was sold at auction by Christie's in 2014 for more than £2.5m, but has now been loaned back to Tate Modern for its new retrospective, Tracey Emin: A Second Life.

The Londoner, 62, told the BBC the bed would be "ridiculousy tidy" if she made it again today, and the sheets would have a "1600 thread count" - a mark of high quality.

Asked by the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, on her Sunday TV show, what would be next to the bed nowadays, the artist replied: "My two cats, maybe a few love letters.

"And it would be ridiculously clean, with very, very beautiful sheets, very clean and very tidy.

"It would be so boring, actually."

Luxurious bedsheets, a reflective Dame Tracey told Kuenssberg, is her "reward" for having lived through a much messier youth and young womanhood.

Dame Tracey rose to fame in the 1990s as one of the Young British Artists (YBAs), alongside the likes of Damian Hirst and Sarah Lucas.

They became known for their entrepreneurial spirit and bold use of unconventional materials, with some at the time saying they used "shock tactics" to create their art.

My Bed, which was inspired by a sexual yet depressive phase in Dame Tracey's life, was much criticised at the time for featuring stained sheets, soiled knickers and used condoms, as well as empty vodka bottles and cigarette butts.

But the artist re-stressed this week that it had, in fact, saved her life.

She revealed she had been moved to tears by seeing it back on display.

"I think it's because I nearly lost my life in that bed," she said. "That bed kept me alive. It's not an affectation, it's a real thing.

"When I got up from that bed and looked at it, what I saw, I was disgusted and repulsed at the fact that I'd been laying in it and then I realised that I shouldn't be because it had been holding me and keeping me alive."

Nearly two years on, Dame Tracey told the BBC she still has the "rebel" in her, but that being a dame means she also now has "a louder voice".

She spoke of her regrets around smoking, and feels as though she has "a duty" to speak out, as her works goes on display.

"The first thing I'd say to my younger self, when I was 13 and I took the first draw on that cigarette: 'Put it out and never do it again'."

She added: "I've feel now a duty to say a lot of things out loud, a lot, and to be fearless about it as well, because I think when you face death like that... you're told that you've possibly got six months to live, you start thinking about your life."

Her new show finds the artist reminiscing about "what you would have done differently, what you regret" and, she added, what you would do differently "if you had another chance".

Her other main regret in life is the "amount of sex" she had, both as "a child and as a teenager", with older men, which she said was "really bad".

She hopes her work tackles topics like child abuse, abortion and suicide in a non-judgemental manner

"If I'm talking about being abused as a child, if I talk sexually, if I'm talking about being [sic] teenage sex with older men - now it's called grooming, right? It wasn't when I was 14...

"If I'm talking about suicide, if I'm talking about depression, all of the abortion, all of these issues that I make work about are really relevant and really important."

Dame Tracey said she's now feels "hideously drunk" when painting late at night or in the early hours of the morning, having previously felt "too guilty to paint" when she was younger.

In a broad-ranging interview, the south Londoner - whose dad was a Turkish Cypriot - also spoke about immigration, the NHS and how, in her opinion, the UK has ended up in "in a mess", politically speaking.

While she doesn't believe AI will take her job as an artist, she said she thinks it is undermining truth in socety.

She wants there to be more "respect and regard" for the arts because, she said, "being creative and making art is a beautiful thing".