#MeToo... we have all been victims – I certainly was
The model and presenter speaks candidly to HANNAH BRITT about Hollywood predators, body bullies and why she can’t wait to turn 40
KELLY Brook was just 18 when she was propelled to stardom almost overnight after landing a plum presenting role on Channel 4 show The Big Breakfast. Although she’d already had success as a model after winning a beauty contest at 16, and become a Daily Star Page 3 girl, it was appearing alongside Johnny Vaughan on the TV programme in 1999 that made her a household name.
“I was 18, very young. It was quite overwhelming,” says Kelly, now 39. “I went from a nobody, living with my mum and dad in a council house in Chatham, to all of a sudden landing the biggest job in telly and being at the Baftas sitting next to Michael Caine.”
Although she was dropped from the show after six months, Kelly has been a regular fixture on our TV screens ever since, fronting Celebrity Love Island, competing on Strictly Come Dancing, as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent and on the panel of Celebrity Juice.
But with all the glitz and glamour came the dark side of fame. Over the past year, many high-profile actresses have spoken out about their experiences as part of the #MeToo movement. And as we chat in a central London hotel, Kelly is candid about her own.
“I think we’ve all been victims at some point. I certainly have, especially in Hollywood,” says Kelly, who left the UK to pursue an acting career across the pond at the age of 20.
“I know a lot of the men who have been accused, and I’ve worked with a lot of them as well. I’ve seen how they’ve operated and they were well known to have operated in that way.
“I was never abused by anyone, but I was definitely in uncomfortable situations with those guys.”
BORN and raised in Chatham, north Kent, Kelly says having the UK to come back to allowed her to escape. “I always felt the UK was my backbone,” she explains. “I started out on TV in England – I had my own show on MTV – so when I came to Hollywood I’d already had a bit of a career, my own success.
“The UK was somewhere
I could go back to and make money. I had a good family,
I was brought up with a good sense of self.”
And it was this, Kelly says, that helped her navigate a safe path through the Hollywood predators.
“I was quite streetwise, I always had good instincts. So if I was ever in a situation like that I could always figure it out,” she says. “But for a lot of those actresses there wasn’t another option. They wanted to be an actress and that meant doing what they needed to do to get there.
“They didn’t have an England to come back to. They were in Hollywood – that was all they were ever going to do.
“And that’s quite sad really. It’s horrible. But it happened.”
Kelly’s Hollywood acting dream didn’t go quite as planned. And after starring in several flops, including Piranha 3D, she decided to rethink her career.
“I’ve not been particularly good at everything,” she laughs.
“I thought I was going to be the next Keira Knightley. I had a posh acting agent.
“But she told me I wasn’t the right pedigree to do the kind of acting work I wanted to do. I was delusional. But it was healthy delusional and I’m pretty resilient.”
Indeed, she says more than 20 years in showbiz have toughened her up. “I think you have to develop a thick skin,” she adds.
Despite this, Kelly felt so insecure after gaining weight last year that she started digitally altering pictures of herself before putting them on social media.
“Yeah, because I looked fat,” she says frankly. “I didn’t look how I wanted to look. So I changed my pictures.”
While being criticised online often goes hand in hand with fame, Kelly says the comments can be hard to take. “They say, ‘Oh my God what’s happened to Kelly? She used to be so skinny.’ And ‘Whoa, Kelly Brook looks like she’s eaten Kelly Brook’.
“People are funny but so cruel. You think, ‘Oh man, I do look like I’ve eaten myself. I’d best get to the gym’.”
Although she rarely responds to the negative comments, Kelly
– the new face of SlimFast – has lost a stone since September.
“I’m in the public eye, it comes with the territory. It’s not nice, but I’m putting myself out there,” she says.
“I do get compensated for it, I have a nice life and a nice house. You have to have a sense of humour about it and be happy in other areas of your life – good relationships with your family, your friends and your partner.
“Because when people do say mean things, and they will in this industry, it’s nice to have a support network of people who love you and are nice to you.”
Kelly has been with her boyfriend Jeremy Parisi, an Italian model and actor, since 2015, after meeting on Instagram.
“I’ve always been with guys who are egotistical and demand attention. It’s just so different when you meet the right person, it’s like a jigsaw puzzle. Everything fits together now. Jeremy is so supportive and helps me stay focused on important things.
“The things that were negative in my life, including people, I don’t have time for any more.”
Indeed as Kelly approaches her 40th birthday this November she says she’s the happiest she’s ever been.
“I’m excited. I feel like I’m back to my best. I’m going to approach 40 feeling good in my body and in a good headspace.”
Ever the showbiz chameleon, she’s looking forward to a new chapter in her work life too. “I’m looking now at what I can do at 40 that can take me to 60,” she says.
A passionate gardener at her home in Surrey, she’s hoping to turn her green fingers into a career.
“I want to be the new Monty Don on Gardeners’ World. That would be a dream.
“My mum still lives on the estate that I grew up on, but when I go home it feels like I’m on a farm. She’s in a council house with chickens, a vegetable garden and a wood burner. “She loves gardening and my grandfather did too, so I think it’s a bit of a genetic thing. “Next time you see me I’ll be wielding shears.”