Busty Big D Nuts babes now – secret lives, jailed partners and a very famous husband

Back when the only thing you could eat in the pub was a bag of nuts or a hazardous ‘ploughmans’ with a cheese triangle and pickled onion, peanuts were big business.

And to keep the punters gobbling, Smiths Snacks marketers came up with a cunning way to whet appetites by placing a picture of a scantily clad lady behind the packets of salted and dry roasted.

Savvy landlords were in on the act too, keeping the salivating clientele hanging by saving the packs that covered the saucy bits until last.

What’s more, hungry revellers determined to see the money shot could even collect tokens for the annual smutty Big D calendar. What a time to be alive!

Needless to say, the job of being a Big D babe came with serious responsibility and the first beauty to hold the title was Essex Page 3 girl Beverley Pilkington.

Just 20 when she was spotted by a scout in London’s Carnaby Street in 1973, she went from modelling raincoats in Leicester to doing glamour shoots on the beach in the South of France in a matter of weeks.

She appeared on four volumes of the Top of the Pops album and was even one of the country’s original remainers, modelling a ‘Europe or Bust’ tee-shirt for The Mirror ahead of the 1975 referendum.

Beverley was one of the original remainers (Image: Mirrorpix)

But despite her provocative poses that had blokes drooling into their bitter, behind the scenes her feelings of discomfort were rapidly growing.

She was one of the only models of the era who refused to go topless on Page 3, telling Australia’s People magazine: “As far as I know I was the only girl who managed to get away with it.”

“From the moment that I first walked into a studio the pressure was always on me to strip off,” she continued.

“But although I did think about it once or twice I knew deep down that I would never me happy with myself if I gave in.”

Gradually, the sometimes demeaning demands of glamour modelling began to take their toll.

“Posing for any kind of glamour shots – even when I was covered up – never came easy for me,” she said.

“I always felt a bit silly sticking my boobs and bum out. And although sitting around in a wet shirt is all right on a beach in the Caribbean it’s not much fun when you are in a cold studio.”

And after just a few years Beverley beat a hasty retreat, choosing to slide into a life of anonymity.

She explained: “After a fairly short time I got fed up with it and made up my mind to stop doing glamour altogether.

“A lot of people think I’ve given up modelling altogether just because they don’t see me on Page 3 any more – but I’m much happier.”

Meanwhile, as the nineties heralded Girl Power and the first incarnations of woke-ness, Big D decided to do away with the pervy boards.

But the emergence of lads’ mags in the early noughties brought a renewed interest in smut, and bosses decided the time had once again come to ask boozers to ‘pull their nuts’.

Page 3 model Ruth Higham was placed at the helm, and with a personal motto of: “If you’ve got ’em, show ’em,” the Buckinghamshire babe was made for the job,

Sales soared by 35 per cent and PR manager Paul Carroll was pumped.

“It doesn’t get better than this – working with a top brand to implement a cheeky up-front campaign focusing on a gorgeous buxom blonde,” he gushed.

“We will be concentrating on the thrill of the reveal and driving people nuts about Ruth in order to create a real talking point for blokes in pubs.”

But Ruth unwittingly hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons when her then actor boyfriend was convicted of five driving offences after she called things off.

The court heard how he had begged Ruth to see him and picked her up in his Mercedes despite being disqualified from driving.

Ruth Higham was the Big D babe of the noughties (Image: The People)

When she made it clear she wasn’t interested, he took the Page 3 pin-up on a drive before losing control of the car and smashing it into a wall.

And when he was sent down for three months in 2000, he was seen clutching a copy of FHM featuring a topless Ruth as he was led away in handcuffs.

Like Beverley, Ruth faded into anonymity and little is known about her whereabouts now.

But while Ruth was done with glamour modelling, Big D and its boards were still enjoying huge success and in 2010 the company launched a nationwide search for the next big thing, or things.

Thousands of applicants were whittled down to 20 luscious babes whose pictures were put on cards in pubs for punters to vote.

The final four took part in a pint-pulling contest, naturally, and strutted their stuff for the judges before Sunbury 19 year old Rosie Jones was crowned the champ.

Rosie started modelling at 17 (Image: REX/Shutterstock)

“I am so excited to be crowned as the new BigD Babe; it is such a great platform for my career and will bring a lot of opportunities as well as fun,” she excitedly said at the time.

“I can’t wait to work in such a friendly industry and alongside some of the industry’s very best photographers for my first very own BigD calendar.”

These days you might recognise Rosie, 29, from somewhere else – and no, not for holding the Guinness World Record for most bras taken off and put back on in a minute. She managed seven FYI.

She’s actually married to Joe Wicks, aka The Body Coach, with the couple parents to daughter Indie, one, and newborn son Marley.

Rosie has two children with Body Coach star Joe Wicks (Image: Instagram / Joe Wicks)

The couple met in 2016 but didn’t go public until she announced her first pregnancy.

“I’ve always chosen to keep my personal life and relationship private but with such an amazing new thing coming into our lives I thought it would be nice to share the news with you myself,” he told fans.

Rosie’s Page 3 days are now far behind her, but she has modelled for lingerie and swimwear brand Pour Moi.

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk