SHE’S the queen of daytime TV and will soon have a bumper £1million paycheck to prove it.
But not everyone will recall Holly Willoughby’s route to the top, which saw her posing for teen magazines, appearing as an Argos catalogue model and starring in a saucy TV advert for Pretty Polly bras.
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Now known for her yummy mummy style, an 18-year-old Holly stripped down to her undies for the cheeky ad, which gave a tongue-in-cheek guide about how bras work and saw her brand herself a ‘sex goddess’.
But the This Morning star, 42, always knew she was destined for greater things – after a seaside psychic told her she would grow up to be a big deal.
She said on her By The Light of the Moon podcast: “When I was a youngster I remember going to, I think it was either Eastbourne Pier or Brighton Pier, I can’t remember.
“There was a psychic lady at the end. My mum took me and my sister to go.
“She said to me ‘You’re going to be a household name. Blah blah blah blah blah.
“We just fobbed her off thinking she probably literally says this to every little kid who walks in because it’s just a nice thing to say. Weird though, eh?”
Whether a kind gesture or a genuine forecast, no psychic could have ever predicted the enormity of Holly’s success.
The presenter, currently on her summer break, is about to sign a bumper £1 million pay deal with ITV when she returns to a rejigged This Morning on September 4.
The mum-of-three will see her £700,000-a-year salary boosted as she’s joined by a rotating cast of presenters Monday to Thursday, including Alison Hammond, Josie Gibson and Welsh newcomer Steve Jones, who shot to fame on T4 two decades ago.
Holly is already worth an estimated £10million and has lucrative deals with Dunhelm, Garnier and Marks & Spencer – a far cry from her early days as a jobbing model.
Teen dream
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Her steady rise to fame began early when in 1995, aged 14, she was spotted by talent scouts on a school trip to The Clothes Show Live exhibition in Birmingham, and signed with model agency Storm Management.
Her wholesome looks made her perfect for teen magazines such as Mizz, Just Seventeen, Shout and More!
But it wasn’t long before Holly unleashed her sultry side as one of Pretty Polly’s ‘Ooooh’ girls in an infamous 1998 TV advert which saw her proclaim: “I’m a sex Goddess.’
When the footage resurfaced in 2017, Holly told The Sun she had no regrets about the advert in which she cups her breasts.
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She said: “It was a really nice ad, I mean it was quite a cool ad at the time to do.
“You know when I’m a grandma I can look back and go, look, this is what I used to do. I think it’s really nice to have those things, I liked it. I really liked it.”
Like stars from Emma Willis to Tess Daly, she also appeared in another cult publication – the Argos catalogue, as a lingerie model.
Model mum
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It wasn’t long before Holly, the daughter of an air stewardess and a double glazing salesman, was posing for lads mags including Arena, Esquire and FHM.
In a 2005 shoot, she is seen posing in a cut-away gold top, while another shows Holly in just a black bra and a tutu hitched up around her midriff.
She was so popular that, in 2016, privately educated Holly, who grew up in West Sussex, was asked to pose for the last print cover of FHM magazine.
Holly wowed in a latex dress ensemble and posed on the front of the mag blowing a farewell kiss.
She said on This Morning: “When they asked me to do it, I was like ‘Really? I think my days might have gone. I’m a mum of three now, but that kind of was part of the reason I did it as well.”
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The host, married to producer Dan Baldwin, always had her eye on the small screen and incredibly got her first break in TV movie, S Club 7: Artistic Differences, playing the late Paul Cattermole’s girlfriend Zoe.
Holly played Paul’s flirty underwear-clad partner who ‘taught him how to kiss’.
They go on a series of dates, including Paul turning up to one of her lingerie photo shoots, but he decides to dump Zoe when he realises her career is taking off.
Holly also got a gig on shopping channel Auction World TV and started studying psychotherapy with the Open University.
Her first presenting job was on kids’ TV show Ministry of Mayhem in 2000 with Stephen Mulhern, who has been heavily tipped to replace Phillip Schofield on Dancing on Ice.
It was the ice dancing show that really propelled Holly into mainstream TV and Schofield later boasted that he got her the job on This Morning in 2009.
Despite the ups and downs and humble beginnings, Holly has broken through to become one of the country’s best-loved stars.
And when she takes her seat back on This Morning she can look back on her hard-won crown.
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