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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
John Bett

Holly Willoughby's career from bra model to S Club girlfriend and Phil Schofield big break

Holly Willoughby has enjoyed a stellar career, rising through the ranks of children's TV presenter to a bona fide prime time darling.

The This Morning host, 42, grew up in Sussex, where a psychic at the end of Brighton Pier once told her she would grow up to be a big deal.

"She said to me: 'You're going to be a household name.' Blah blah blah blah blah," Holly told Michael Macintyre on By The Light of the Moon.

"I think having that information when I was young... It gave me a little bit of an inner glow and a bit of confidence to go, 'Yeah I am.'

"It made me feel quite good about myself. Like I had a secret that great things were going to happen.

"Maybe it helped fulfil that a bit rather than the fact she was actually a psychic."

And great things certainly did happen for Holly, who has appeared in a slew of primetime shows and heads up her own lifestyle brand, Wylde Moon.

The daughter of an air stewardess and a double glazing salesman, she was first spotted by modelling scouts at Clothes Show Live when she was 14.

She signed with modelling agency Storm Management and began appearing in teen magazines before modelling underwear for catalogues.

One of her first-ever jobs was a TV lingerie modelling campaign for Pretty Polly bras, which she filmed in 1998.

The cheeky advert showed an 18-year-old Holly giving tongue-in-cheek instructions about how bras work.

In it, she tossed her blonde-brown curls around and branded herself a "sex goddess" while wearing a white bra and dangling pearl earrings as a man in a lab coat took notes.

But Holly's first foray into mainstream TV came when she landed a part in TV movie, S Club 7: Artistic Differences, playing the late Paul Cattermole's girlfriend Zoe.

After a spell presenting shopping channel Auction World TV, Holly studied psychotherapy with the Open University - but her TV dreams never went away.

Holly played Paul's girlfriend in S Club: Artistic Differences (S Club 7: Artistic Differences/19 Media)

A showreel made by a friend got her noticed by the BBC and she got gigs presenting CBBC shows including CBBC at the Fame Academy.

She went on to present children's TV shows Xchange, X-perimental and CBBC at the Fame Academy, but her big break came when she landed Ministry of Mayhem alongside Stephen Mulhern and won a BAFTA for her work.

It was on that show that she met husband Dan Baldwin, who worked as a producer.

But it was Holly's future This Morning co-host Phillip Schofield who engineered her move away from kids' TV when she won a coveted slot presenting Dancing On Ice alongside him.

Stephen with Holly Willoughby in Ministry of Mayhem back in 2005 (REX)

Launching Holly into a prime time slot, her former 'bestie' handpicked her to join him, and campaigned for her to replace Fern Britton when she left This Morning in 2009.

That gig alone is believed to earn her £730,000 a year. In 2017 she received a £200,000 pay rise to bring her in line with Phil, and both are said to receive £200,000 for Dancing on Ice.

The mother-of-three reportedly earned £500,000 by stepping in for pal Ant McPartlin on I'm A Celebrity in 2018, and has also made millions through advertising deals and endorsements.

Holly joined Dancing on Ice alongside Phil (ITV / Rex Features)
She then took over from Fern on This Morning (Ken McKay / Rex Features)

She is a brand ambassador for Marks and Spencer and Garnier and in 2017 received a six-figure sum as a brand ambassador for Diet Coke.

The star further topped up her bank balance by penning parenting books Truly Happy Baby, It Worked For Me, and Truly Scrumptious Baby.

In 2013, she became a children's author when she co-wrote eight children's novels with her sister, Kelly, called the School for Stars series, for a reported £50k per book.

Holly and her husband Dan Baldwin also run their own £3.4million production company, Roxy Media, while Holly's lifestyle venture, Wylde Moon is predicted to make millions, bringing her estimated net worth to an impressive £11.5million.

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