Dani Behr was just 17 years old when she landed a presenting gig for outrageous late night Channel 4 show, The Word, in 1992.
It catapulted the Sylvia Young Theatre School student to overnight fame and launched her career as a lads’ mag favourite – with Dani gracing the covers week in, week out.
The gorgeous blonde caught was also one of the original WAGs thanks to her relationship with Manchester United star Ryan Giggs, but they split after a year with Dani claiming Giggs’ manager Alex Ferguson had made things ‘difficult’.
Dani Behr was on the cover of the lads’ mags every week
“I lived in London and Ryan was in Manchester and he didn’t like his team travelling a long way so that was difficult. He controlled Ryan,” she told the Sunday People in 2015.
“I got so much attention then, I was never out of the papers. I guess we were the first showbiz – footballer couple so there was a huge interest in us.”
Then came a four-year romance with Spurs and England star Les Ferdinand, which collapsed when he was pictured leaving a hotel with another woman.
“It was awful, one of the most awful moments of my life,” she said. “I was heartbroken.”
As her personal life took a nosedive, her professional life followed suit and a promising job hosting CBBC’s The Saturday Show ended in scandal when she was let go following a racy interview.
The Word was hosted by Terry Christian, Mark Lamaar, Dani Behr and Katie Puckrik
In an explicit chat with Maxim magazine, she dished on having ‘really seedy, but great’ sex in an NCP car park and quipped that her husky voice was ideal for phone sex.
“I travel a lot, so the hotel phone tends to get a little heated,” she teased before revealing a crush on Sharon Stone and detailing her fantasies.
“She’s the sexiest woman I’ve ever met. Although she never uncrossed her legs for me, I’d go for her,” she added.
According to The Guardian, Nigel Pickard, the head of children’s TV at the BBC at the time, branded the comments ‘inappropriate’ for a children’s TV presenter.
Joe Mace and Dani Behr fronted the BBC’s Saturday Show (Image: BBC)
Her contract was not renewed, with Mr Pickard admitting the show was attracting too many students and not enough kids.
“The Saturday Show was pitched a little bit old,” he explained. “The holy grail is to get the student audience as well as the six-year-olds watching.”
But opportunity came knocking for Dani in the form of a job hosting US entertainment show, EXTRA, and it was while living in Los Angeles that she met restaurateur Carl Harwin.
They married in 2005, welcomed children Coco, 15, and Zane, 13, and relocated to Sydney, Australia, where he ran a yogurt shop.
Dani and Ryan Giggs dated for a year (Image: News Team)
She tried to relaunch her UK career with a stint in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here in 2008 but was the second star to be evicted from the jungle.
Then in 2014 Dani, now 50, confirmed she had split from Carl, admitting they’d had nothing in common.
“We’d been growing apart for some time,” she told Hello! magazine in 2014.
“We moved to Costa Rica and Australia and, as Carl works such crazy hours – he’d often get home at 11pm and leave before the kids and I woke up the next morning. It was very isolating. I was like a single parent from the beginning.
“What I learnt from my Carl is that opposites attract – at first. Later, you realise that you need to have things in common.”
Dani Behr and her now ex-husband Carl Harwin
Determined to secure a reliable source of income for her children, LA-based Dani decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and retrain as an estate agent.
She sat her exams in 2015 and now runs her own agency selling multi-million dollar properties to the rich and famous.
“I was once hanging out with the most famous people in the world, dating sportsmen and socialising with the trendiest bands. Now I sell houses to them, it’s funny how things work out,” she told the Sunday People.
Dani now sells real estate to the rich and famous (Image: Rupert Thorpe)
“I was never comfortable with the fame thing, it was never anything I really wanted and plus, my father’s delighted.
“He says he is so happy that finally I have got a proper job.”
She added: “As you get older, it is harder to find a job in television – especially in the US. The work dries up, and very quickly.
“I’m a single mum now so I need regular money coming in, money I can rely on, just as any mother would need. I also need a job I can do for the next 20 years or so.
“I am relieved that nobody cares about what I do any more. I don’t care if people think I’m not famous any more, or if they laugh at me.
“I learned not to care what people thought about me a long time ago. My kids come first and I need to make sure they have a roof over their heads.”
Dani now lives in the exclusive suburb of Bel Air – made famous by the Fresh Prince – just a stone’s throw from Beverly Hills.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
