AMANDA HOLDEN
The night I dated Simon Cowell and the real reason he’s kept me on as his talent show judge for 10 years
How on earth has Amanda Holden survived in the cut-throat arena of Simon Cowell’s Saturday-night television empire?
Unlike Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne, Dermot O’Leary, Kate Thornton, Kelly Brook and Michael McIntyre (to name but a few), she has not faced the ignominy of opening up a newspaper to find herself slashed from her job overnight. But if she needed any reminders about how precarious her position is, the very week we meet, there’s a stream of new victims as Nick Grimshaw, Caroline Flack and Olly Murs are all given the chop by the The X Factor’s Dark Lord. Holden, 45, shrugs: ‘It’s more of a surprise to me than anyone else that after 10 years I’m still here.’
She is not kidding. Even Holden herself – known largely for her outrageously flirty behaviour and barely-there dresses – had little faith in lasting for more than one series of
Britain’s Got Talent, which returns next month. ‘I went into it thinking it would be one show and that was it. I never expected to love it as much as I do.’
But her risqué attire, flirtatious behaviour and that very filthy laugh have made her a vital part of the success of Britain’s
Got Talent. Unlike The X Factor, which has seen its ratings fall from 14 to seven million viewers, BGT has continued to rise, last year finishing with its highest ever audience of 13.4 million.
Beyond her red heels, perfectly sculpted blonde hair and the barrage of saucy jokes, there are far more impressive reasons Holden has succeeded. In a surprising and candid interview, she reveals how it was Cowell who turned her image round from scarlet woman to National Treasure, why her first marriage, to Les Dennis, was always doomed, how she buried her feud with Piers Morgan and survived a heartbreaking baby tragedy. She also makes a startling revelation about what she is (and isn’t) wearing on her very unorthodox journey to work.
Holden is happy to play up to the image of the telly blonde. ‘I definitely see myself in the Barbara Windsor mould,’ she says. ‘Naughty, cheeky, but underneath all of it, I promise, I’m a good girl.’ She is unrepentant about showing off parts of her anatomy in dresses that often cause hosts Ant and Dec to blush. ‘I honestly don’t give a monkey’s,’ she says.
‘It gives people something to talk about but if I worked in a bank I’d be wearing tight skirts and high heels because that’s just who I am.’
Holden first became a household name for all the wrong reasons. She married comedian Les Dennis in 1995, when she was just 24 and he was 42. Their marriage ended two years after the star of Cutting It and Wild At Heart had an affair in 2000 with actor Neil Morrissey.
‘All of a sudden I was seen as this nasty little minx, a marriage wrecker,’ she says. ‘I didn’t know how to handle it. I married Les after my first relationship ended. I was very young and he always told me I’d leave him. And then that happened with Neil. It was a really difficult time. I was caught. It was awful for everyone involved and the fact it was all over the papers every day made things incredibly messy.’
It was BGT that was to turn her image around. But ironically, when Cowell offered her the job in 2007, her only concern was the fact that one of her co-judges was Piers Morgan, who had exposed the story of her affair during his time as editor of the Daily Mirror. ‘Simon called me and asked me to be a judge on the show,’ she says. ‘I think his original choice had dropped out and all I could think about was facing Piers Morgan. I saw him as the man who had ruined me.
‘We met before the show and I told him he owed me an apology. But he told me I should thank him because if it wasn’t for him my marriage wouldn’t have ended and I wouldn’t be married to my husband [she met record producer and property developer Chris Hughes in 2003 and gave birth to their first child, Lexi, in 2006].’
Morgan and Holden are now close friends, and she, Dennis and Morrissey have remained on good terms – which says much about the way she deals with a problem. ‘You have to face up to things, accept who you are and what you have done and just get on as best you can.
‘The reason why I will be forever loyal to and forever friends with Simon is that by him giving me that job on
Britain’s Got Talent, I got to be myself on television and people could judge who I was and make their minds up for themselves.
‘I had a terrible image, and while it didn’t stop me working as an actress,
BGT completely changed that. Simon always tells me he is responsible for making people like me. Of course I hate him saying that, but it’s true.
‘Simon always tells people he hired me because he fancied me but that’s absolute nonsense. He doesn’t go for blondes.’ (Unlike Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, Dannii Minogue, Nicole Scherzinger and Alesha Dixon, she is the only blonde in the Cowell coterie – Rita Ora is a natural brunette). ‘A very long time ago, when we were both single, we went out on a date but I pre- ordered a cab to come and get me at 10.30pm, which made him laugh and he never forgot that.’
For a woman who describes herself as ‘unbelievably lucky’, Holden has had some incredibly bleak moments. In her autobiography, No Holding Back, she revealed that she was sexually assaulted by a celebrity (she won’t name him) after her marriage to Les Dennis disintegrated. ‘Apart from that one incident, I’ve always been able to handle things.
I’ve definitely had my bottom patted or been called “doll” in the past but chose not to be offended by it. It was different times and we have to understand that.’ Worse was to come, as in the midst of filming BGT in 2011 she gave birth to her stillborn son, Theo, at seven months.
It is something she still finds hard to talk about. Her smile cracks as she recounts how she was told he ‘had died in my tummy’.
The following year she almost died giving birth to her third child, Hollie, due to a ruptured artery that caused
The longest- serving judge on one of TV’s most popular talent shows grew up in poverty and she has come through a high-profile divorce, nearly dying and losing a child, but as Amanda Holden reveals it’s made her a survivor...
an instant haemorrhage. Despite the fact that she flat-lined for 40 seconds and remained in intensive care for a week, she was soon back on the panel of BGT, something that caused outrage from thousands on social media who thought she was putting her career before her family.
It is the only period in her life where she sought therapy, after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
‘A lot of people didn’t understand it but I had to work to get my life back together. People thought I shouldn’t have gone back to work. My primal instinct was that I didn’t want Lexi to know anything was wrong with me, I didn’t want my child to be frightened.
‘I went back to the show when Hollie was just a few days old and had my mum with us 24/7. One of the most incredible things about BGT is that we’ve all been through tough things and I knew I could rely on them [the other BGT judges] for support. I knew they would understand.’
Simon, David [Walliams] and Alesha knew they couldn’t come over and be too kind to me, because I would fall to pieces. They just knew exactly how to keep me holding together. They all sent flowers to my room, said the right thing, squeezed my hand.
‘A few days in, Simon said something to me and I replied: “I’m the only person who would come back from a coma to do your show.” That’s when he said I was made out of steel, though he’s now upgraded that to titanium.’
In the business she’s known as the one who remembers the name of the gaffers and runners on every show she works on. Her best friends include the actress Sarah Parish, who she starred alongside in Cutting It, and her mentor remains Caroline Quentin, who she met in 1998 on the BBC comedy Kiss Me Kate. But she’s savvy enough to know where to draw a line on celebrity gossip and she’s never been drawn into feuding with her peers.
‘When Alesha came on the panel in 2012, everyone assumed we’d be rivals. Simon loves to stir things up among the judges – he loves a bit of a catfight. But I told him that wasn’t ever going to happen. I wasn’t going to be played off against another woman. Before Alesha joined we went out for lunch and talked for hours. I have two daughters. I am a woman’s woman. I don’t want my daughters to see women on television being bitchy to each other, being mean. I don’t think people want to see that in their living rooms.’
Having been the subject of a tabloid scandal herself, Holden also knows when to be discreet. Ask her what she thinks of Cheryl’s new romance with 1D’s Liam Payne, she smiles: ‘ Cheryl’s absolutely lovely and I hope she’s happy, but I’m not a friend of hers.’
She has a gift for reinvention. She’s gone from TV actress ( Wild
At Heart remains one of ITV’s biggest dramas) to stage (she was nominated for an Olivier award for Thoroughly Modern Millie) and received rave reviews for her role as Princess Fiona in Shrek.
But it’s clear from her conversation, which is peppered with references to her husband and two girls, that her family is at the centre of her life. It grounds her in unusual ways as she reveals that, unlike Cowell with his chauffeurdriven limousines and private jets, she is only ever driven around on motorbike taxis, because ‘it cuts down on any travel time.’ Yet no one would notice as one of the biggest stars of British TV weaves through the London traffic, clinging to the back of a rider. ‘I’m usually in a onesie with no makeup on and a helmet. In the winter I’m in a onesie with tons of layers on top of me to keep warm. I have my clothes in the studio to change into. I just have to get on, hang on to the rider and then I’m home.
‘All I ever want to do is get home to my kids, and you can whiz through the traffic on the back of the bike and cut the time to less than half.’
The real key to Holden is her strength born out of a tough working-class background. ‘I was born a survivor,’ she says, ‘and in that way I’m exactly like Simon. If bad things happen, you get up, you dust yourself down and you smile. I’m tough because I’ve always had to be.’
Brought up with her younger sister, Debbie, by her mother, Judith, after her natural father walked out (her stepfather, Les, is the man she calls her father), she grew up in a small village in Hampshire surrounded by strong women.
‘We had no money when we were growing up – we were always absolutely brassic. I remember when my mum was on her own and she used to take me and my sister fruit-picking. We were tiny but we helped, eating half of them, picking half of them. It was instilled in me to work.
‘I have vivid memories of all of us – my mum, my aunt and my nana, Ethel, always laughing. I learned how to flirt by watching my nana – who is still pinching men’s bottoms at the age of 95. She always told me the truth. Even now, if she sees me wearing something or doing something she doesn’t like she’ll send me an email – except she calls emails iPads – telling me off.’
Holden turns down work in order to be a mother. She has a nanny but she and her husband take care of most of the childcare. ‘I do school runs, Monkey Music, swimming, everything I can,’ she says.
‘I work for my kids – they have a nice life and I’m thrilled to be able to give that to them. But I also expect them to have a good work ethic and good manners in return. My girls would tell you I’m strict. But I’m just like my mum was with me.’
She is also fiercely protective of her children. She took legal action to stop pictures of Lexi, being used in the press after she dressed up for a school event as Cindy Crawford. Her husband accidentally captioned a picture as ‘Pretty Woman’ and uploaded it onto her Twitter account. A year on it is still not something she will discuss.
If Cowell ever does decide to swing his axe, Holden has got other tricks up her sleeve. She plans to bring the musical Stepping Out to the West End, starring herself and a group of friends including Sarah Parish, Angela Griffin and Nicola Stephenson.
‘It’s also great to remind people this is what I can do.’
Holden has never been anyone’s dumb blonde. This is a woman who is a natural-born survivor. She is in it for the long haul.
Britain’s Got Talent returns to ITV next month.
‘Simon Cowell said I was made out of steel, but he’s now upgraded that to titanium’