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Sophie Anderton (born 14 May 1977 in
Bristol) is an English model and reality television personality.
Anderton attended Redland High School for Girls in Bristol between 1988
and 1993. In 1993 she briefly attended Bristol Cathedral School before
becoming a model at age 16.
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.
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. She has since resumed the habit.
In 2006, Anderton was a contestant on the second series of ITV's Love
Island. Known as Me-Me by the show's presenters, Fearne Cotton and Patrick
Kielty, she was covered extensively in the press as being emotionally
unstable, crying relentlessly and being highly self-absorbed. 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.
In 2004, Anderton admitted to having sex for £5,000, arranged by a brothel
madam in Florence, Italy.
In 2007, tabloid newspaper News Of The World and 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 her
prostitution.
At the age of 19, Anderton started seeing millionaire Robert Hanson, 17
years her senior, who introduced her to a world of royalty, private jets,
glitz and glamour. The relationship lasted 4 years.
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 continual therapy session,
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 didn't
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.
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 not 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. |
