Sophie Anderton

Sophie Anderton
Born	Sophie Anderton (1977-05-14) 14 May 1977 Bristol, England
Nationality	Britain
Occupation	Model
Years active	1996, –present
Modelling information
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Hair colour	Brown
Eye colour	Green

Sophie Anderton (born 14 May 1977 in Bristol) is an English model and reality television personality.

Early life

Anderton attended Redland High School for Girls in Bristol between 1988 and 1993. In 1993 she briefly attended Bristol Cathedral Choir School before becoming a model at age 16.

Career

She became famous in 1996 after appearing in the Gossard Glossies "Girl in the grass" national advertising campaign shot by Herb Ritts, with the strapline "Who said a woman couldn't get pleasure from something soft?". The campaign attracted a record number of complaints (321) to the Advertising Standards Authority, none of which were upheld. The ASA later found out that the majority of complaints came from women who had never seen the ads, and had been encouraged to write in by an outraged newspaper columnist.

Earnings of £30,000 per week propelled her into the ranks of the it-girls and allowed her to lead a lifestyle of parties, drugs and sex. The UK tabloid press reported this in detail, even more so when she became addicted to cocaine, had a tumultuous affair with footballer and fellow addict Mark Bosnich, and became involved in prostitution.

She traces her cocaine addiction back to when she was prescribed morphine after her car accident as a child –

The amount of painkillers I was given. Every time I had a pain in my leg I got used to numbing it out.

— Sophie Anderton, BBC Real Story, May 2004

In 2006, she was diagnosed and treated for bipolar disorder and made a minor return to modelling as the frontperson for that year's National Egg Awareness Campaign.

Campaigns

Sophie Anderton

• Gossard 1998–
• Completing the Flora London Marathon.
• British Berries summer fruits campaign 2006.
• Maxim magazine.
• Peacocks – Breast cancer awareness.
• La Senza's Christmas collection (November 2006)

Reality Television

In 2004, Anderton was a contestant on the fourth series of ITV's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, where she came fifth and was remembered for having a disagreement with singer Natalie Appleton.

She has also taken part in Simply the Best and a celebrity edition of the UK version of Fear Factor. In 2005, she appeared in the programme Cold Turkey which followed her attempts to quit smoking cigarettes alongside Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. She later became the face of the SOS Instant Quit Programme which consists of a mouth spray which makes smokers feel sick at the smell and taste of cigarette smoke.

In 2006, Anderton was a contestant on the second series of ITV's Love Island. She fell out with friend, Lady Victoria Hervey, after Anderton transferred her affections from Shane Lynch to Hervey's island interest Chris Brosnan. After a long discussion expressing how upset she was with her former friend's behaviour, Hervey then poured a bottle of wine over Anderton's head. Anderton was evicted from the show on 25 August.

Anderton appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on 22 September 2006, and announced that she was about to star in a new TV series. The series was later announced as Sky One's Cirque de Celebrité, but had to quit after she sustained ligament damage.

Prostitution

In 2004, Anderton admitted to having sex for £5,000, arranged by a brothel madam in Florence.

In 2007, tabloid newspaper News Of The World and its reporter Mazher Mahmood conducted an entrapment operation, in which Anderton both took and offered cocaine and offered to have sex with Mahmood for £10,000. Her £100,000pa contract with fake tan firm Fake Bake was terminated the next day, citing its no-tolerance policy towards drug use.

In 2009, she confessed to sleeping with strangers to fund her drug habit while talking to Jeremy Kyle on his ITV show.

Personal life

Matt Graham, a previous boyfriend, told The People: "I was trapped in a nightmare relationship with the girl. It was simply two years of hell. The sex was amazing, really steamy, some of the best I've ever had. But it wasn't worth having to put up with all her emotional baggage."

After an early period in her modelling career as muse to the designer Scott Henshall, from 2002 to 2004 she had a tumultuous relationship with the footballer Mark Bosnich, before leaving him due to a cycle of drug taking and violence. In 2004, she met and was subsequently engaged to nightclub owner Mark Alexiou, but the relationship broke up soon after her call-girl confession.

After returning from Fiji for Love Island, it was reported that she was in a relationship with Crystal Palace F.C. chairman Simon Jordan.

She then entered a relationship with property developer Ed Buxton, during the early period of which the prostitution allegations were publicised. After a period in a rehab clinic, followed by therapy sessions, the relationship appeared to be developing well, despite Anderton admitting she had been declared bankrupt. However, in November 2008 Anderton was arrested by the Metropolitan Police outside Buxton's Parsons Green, west London apartment at 2:00 in the morning, as Anderton yelled "I'll kill myself if you won't take me back" and that she said she did not want to live without him. It was later reported that the couple had broken up after Anderton had flirted with Danio Domingues, a doorman from Chelsea nightclub Kitts.

On 4 June 2009, a 58-year-old man from the Borough of Enfield in North London was charged with harassment without violence after Anderton complained to police about dozens of text messages left on her mobile phone; he was bailed to appear at West London Magistrates Court on 17 July 2009, and was convicted of harassing the model on 25 March 2010.

On 23 September 2009, The Sun ran a story and associated video evidence, showing Anderton from the previous Friday night in a club in Fulham, West London, snorting a white powder substance from the desk of the club's office.

In December 2009, it was reported that Anderton made a drunken scene in London Waterloo railway station when she attempted to travel by Eurostar. She was not aware that the rail service had moved to St Pancras International over two years previously, as well as being unaware of the disruption caused by snow, and was arrested by British Transport Police for being drunk and disorderly, and was detained overnight. In August 2012, Anderton was reported to have ended a brief affair with Microsoft UK's head of Advertising, Andy Hart.

Film and television

Sophie Anderton, London 2007

Film

• Popcorn (2007) as "Female Killer"

Television appearances

• The Late Late Show (2004)
• Hell's Kitchen (2004)
• Celebrity Fear Factor UK (2004)
• Simply the Best (2004)
• I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! (2004)
• GMTV (2004)
• Big Brother's Efourum" (2004, 2005)
• This Morning (2004, 2006)
• Taste (2005)
• 1 Leicester Square (2006)
• Celebrity Love Island (2006)
• Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (2006)
• Tubridy Tonight (2006)
• Loose Women (2007)
• Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong (2008)
• The Jeremy Kyle Show (2009)
• Total Wipeout (2012)

External links

• Interview at Maxim magazine
• Sophie Anderton at Fashion Model Directory