Homelessness, breakdowns and Hollywood – what came next for the lads' mag babes

These days people get their kicks sliding in and out of the DMs of sexy Instagram models.

But back in the more innocent times of the early noughties, if you wanted a quick ogle you had to actually walk to the shop and buy a magazine.

FHM, Loaded, Nuts and Zoo were the order of the day, and with them came a host of busty beauties that adorned the bedroom walls of lads across the country.

But by the end of the decade, thanks to the internet and changing views on glamour models, the lads’ mag industry was on its knees, leaving its pin-ups in need of a new direction.

Things worked out better for some than others though. From homelessness and illness to heartbreak and a surprise Hollywood career, here’s what came next for the lads’ mag babes…

Gail Porter

Gail’s naked bod was projected onto the Houses of Parliament (Image: FHM)

Petite Gail started out hosting Fully Booked and Top of the Pops but quickly branched out to become a lads’ mag favourite, sharing her thoughts on orgasms and having her naked bum projected onto the Houses of Parliament to promote FHM magazine’s 100 sexiest women poll in 1999.

She married Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave in 2001 and welcomed daughter Honey a year later.

But while everything looked perfect, privately she was struggling with post-natal depression and when her marriage ended in 2005 she was struck down with alopecia and went completely bald.

Gail’s hair fell out following the collapse of her marriage (Image: Getty Images)

She was sectioned for 28 days under the Mental Health Act in 2011 after texting then-boyfriend, guitarist Jonny Davies, to say she was suicidal.

“It was absolutely terrifying, I didn’t know what was going on,” she later said.

“We didn’t have any therapy, we just sat there. People were crying and acting quite strangely, obviously. I was drugged up to my eyeballs and found it all very distressing.”

Then in 2017, Gail, now 48, hit rock bottom when she went bankrupt and ended up homeless and sleeping on a park bench in Hampstead Heath.

“Those were the scariest nights of my life. There were lots of terrifying noises. I had no idea what they were. I was freezing and I didn’t know who was coming for me,” she told The Sun.

Gail was forced to sleep rough after work dried up (Image: DS)

And she said her financial problems were sparked by her hair loss.

“Losing my hair was a big thing. I was OK with it and people around me would say it was fine but people stopped booking me for TV work,” she said.

“The jobs that were coming so freely during the nineties weren’t there for me any more. By then I was renting a place and my savings started to dribble away.”

Keeley Hazell

Keeley was one of the most photographed models of her time (Image: Tim Merry)

Born in Lewisham, London to a dinner lady mum and window-fitter dad, Keeley was catapulted to fame when she won the Daily Star’s Search for a Beach Babe contest at 17.

With quotes like: “If I’m swimming in a pool and my bikini pops off, I’m not bothered – I’ll just carry on,” she got snapped up by Loaded, Nuts, Zoo and FHM, who cheekily listed her occupation as a Kentish melon farmer.

Keeley Hazell has carved out a Hollywood career

Living the dream, she said at the time: “I was travelling all the time, and financially my situation changed a lot. I was earning a lot of money. At the time you don’t realise and I look back and think ‘that was crazy.'”

Now 33, Keely racked up more saucy shoots that any other glamour model at that time but quit in 2009 when the pay dropped from £30,000 a shoot to £1,000 amid falling magazine readership.

Instead, she used her saved cash to pay for acting lessons in Los Angeles and starred in 2011’s Like Crazy, British gangster movie St George’s Day and Horrible Bosses 2.

Leilani Dowding

Leilani had beauty and brains (Image: Getty Images)

Brain box Leilani studied economics at the University of London and was a former Miss Great Britain before she became a regular feature in the mags.

But she dropped and rolled to Los Angeles in the mid noughties where she married Raquel Welch’s ex-husband, restauranteur Richie Palmer, 66.

The 26-year age gap proved to be too much and they divorced amid differences over whether or not to start a family.

She relocated to Los Angeles but has now moved back to the UK after 15 years away (Image: Leilani Dowling/Instagram)

Hitting back at gold digger claims, she told VH1’s Tough Love Miami: “I was the one who wanted to get divorced from my ex. He just assumed I would want something from it and offered me a huge settlement. Because it was my choice, I didn’t ask for anything.

“Because he is a lot older, people assume that yes, I was a gold digger. My ex husband was amazing and such a gentlemen.

“But he didn’t want kids and I did. That is why we didn’t work out. We are still friends and if he ever thought I was just out for money, he would probably never speak to me again.”

The Real Housewives of Cheshire: Hanna Miraftab, Rachel Lugo, Dawn Ward, Tanya Bardsley, Seema Malthora, Ester Dohnalová, Perla Navia and Leilani Dowding (Image: Monkey Kingdom/ITV)

Leilani, 40, is now set to return to the UK with rocker boyfriend Billy Duffy after landing a part on the Real Housewives of Cheshire.

Leilani told the Daily Star that it was LA’s famous sunshine that helped make her mind up.

“This is gonna sound really stupid because I actually moved to LA for the weather, but the weather is getting so ridiculously hot there now,” she said.

Abi Titmuss

Abi rose to fame as a glamour model (Image: GETTY)

Abi first hit the headlines when she supported then-boyfriend John Leslie through his collapsed 2003 sexual assault case.

They split soon after and Abi turned her back on her nursing job at London’s University College Hospital to take up glamour modelling.

But like Leilani, she quit in the mid-noughties and studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama before landing a part in BBC drama Casualty in 2012.

She split from John Leslie shortly after the court case (Image: Getty)

She quit the UK and landed a part as Nurse Jackie in Days of Our Lives, where she met husband Ari Welkom, 43.

In January 2015 Abi revealed she’d changed her name to Abigail Evelyn to escape her glamour modelling roots.

She married Ari in May 2017 while 21 weeks pregnant with their first child.

Abi has one child with husband Ari (Image: NBLMPIX)

“I met Ari when I was 38 and got pregnant naturally at 40,” Abi told Loose Women.

“So I want to give some hope to people who are feeling that pressure. It took six months to get pregnant and I ended up pregnant on our wedding day which is what we wanted. I felt the baby moving as I walked down the aisle. But I wasn’t showing too much!”

Kelly Brook

Kelly Brook was hailed the Sexiest Woman in the World (Image: Redferns)

With her killer curves, it’s no wonder Kelly Brook was voted FHM’s Sexiest Woman in the World.

After busting onto the scene in 1997, the voluptuous vixen quickly became a Daily Star Page 3 favourite and appeared in FHM’s Sexiest countdown every single year before it shut in 2015.

Kel, 40, and her 34DDs had a disastrous stint presenting the Big Breakfast in 1999 before she quit after just a matter of months amid claims she stumbled over the pronunciation of big words.

Kelly is still a regular on TV and took part in Celebrity Bake Off 2020 (Image: Love Productions)

You can’t keep a good girl down though and Kelly bounced back, hosting Celebrity Love Island and getting engaged to Hollywood actor Billy Zane.

But she was forced to postpone their wedding following the devastating death of her dad in 2007, and their relationship ended for good the following year.

There was more tragedy in store when in 2011 she lost her baby girl when five months pregnant with England rugby star Thom Evans, and suffered another miscarriage later that year.

They split months later when Thom moved to Los Angeles to pursue a modelling career and made it clear he didn’t want any further commitment.

Kelly Brook and Thom Evans split after a double heartbreak

“When I brought up the subject of marriage and children, the colour drained from his face,” Kelly wrote in her autobiography.

“He wanted to focus on his ‘new life’ in LA – a wife and children would slow him down. He didn’t want to be in a relationship anymore. It was obvious.”

She now lives in Kent with toyboy Jeremy Parisi and presents Heart London’s drivetime show.

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk