Modelling sensation Rob Rea got his break after a banking career went belly-up.
Rob worked for RBS during the credit crunch and says he saw “the ugly side of banking”.
He said: “I was dealing with guys under huge stress who had borrowed millions from the bank and were close to completely breaking down.”
When it all got too much, Belfast-raised Rob, 37, quit.
His girlfriend Jude, 34, who was a model, suggested a prolonged break in Cape Town, where she had been offered work.
Have you got what it takes to become Britain's Most Handsome Man? Go to www.mirror/handsomeman.co.uk
The move to South Africa was a life changer.
Rob explains: “I got approached out of nowhere to do this advert for Nivea face cream. It was a one-off and my girlfriend encouraged me to do it.
"All the guys back home did take the mickey when they saw me advertising face cream.”
But the money was great, the job was fun and Rob stuck at it.
Soon after, he and Jude landed a North Face ad campaign together in London, haven’t looked back since – and have wed.
Since then he’s modelled for Nespresso, Gillette, Land Rover, Ferrari, Bentley and Samsung – often, ironically, in adverts aimed at the kind of guys he used to work with in banking.
Could you be Britain's Most Handsome Man?
The boss of Britain’s biggest modelling agency wants fellas to try out for the Britain’s Most Handsome Man contest, calling it the “chance of a lifetime”.
Sarah Doukas, founder of the Storm agency, says: “It’s always the ones who have no idea they’d be right for modelling who end up making the better models.
“So if there are Sunday Mirror readers – parents or grandparents, uncles or aunts, brothers or sisters, or daughters or sons of a handsome man – be sure to enter them today.
“The majority of our great models have not just walked in the agency door.
“Look at Kate Moss, Lily Cole, Jourdan Dunn, Poppy and Cara Delevingne. We had to find them.
“I found Poppy and Cara at my daughter’s school. My point is, people just don’t know they have what it takes. That’s why competitions like this are so important.”
Storm is the Sunday Mirror’s partner in the contest, which has got the modelling world buzzing.
Sarah’s male models travel around the world for the most amazing jobs, which can open doors into showbiz.
And Sarah says a career in modelling does wonders for feelings of self-worth too, saying of recruits: “We see them blossom – the confidence just takes off.”
