LOVING MUM AND DAD WHO ARE HOLLY’S IDOLS

HOLLY’S mum Lynne (pictured with her, right) is a former air stewardess while father Brian used to run a double-glazing firm. Happily married, she calls them her idols and looks up to their example of domestic stability.

Holly said: ‘My mum and dad have been together for years and years, and they’re a real team. My mum instilled in me that importance of family life and being married to somebody who is a real partner.

‘From watching her with my dad over the years, I knew that was something I really wanted.’

Holly is the younger of two children. She and big sister Kelly were raised in Woodmancote, near Brighton, and went to the private Burgess Hill Girls school.

She says she talks to her mother several times a day and Kelly, too. Holly said of her sister: ‘We’re best friends and because we’ve never chased the same dream, there’s a complete lack of competitiveness. We spend every bank holiday and Christmas together. If you spend a day in our company you feel sorry for anybody else coming into our gang.’

She added: ‘I have the best memories of Christmas. Mum and Dad are massive fans and it was almost more important than our birthdays. It was like Santa’s grotto in our house.

‘Mum once had a Christmas party in June.

‘She defrosted the freezer and when all her friends came round she made us lean out the window and throw the frost outside, to make it seem like it was snowing.

‘Christmas is still huge for us. We flip-flop it, as I have my husband Dan’s family to think about and Kelly’s the same, so we do either Boxing Day or Christmas Day. It’s mainly about eating these days.’

Kelly said: ‘We were the girliest of girlie girls when we were little and our games were always based around Cinderella.

‘It’s where our world started and stopped — it still does!’