Danielle Lloyd (born 16 December 1983) is an
English glamour model. The former
Miss England 2004 and
Miss Great Britain 2006 first rose to prominence when she was stripped of her
Miss Great Britain 2006 title after posing for
nude pictures featured in the December 2006 edition of
Playboy magazine and her alleged affair with one of the pageant's judges, her then-boyfriend,
footballer Teddy Sheringham.
As a participant in the
2007 series of
Celebrity Big Brother, Lloyd, along with others, were accused of using
bullying tactics and making
racist comments directed against the Indian actress
Shilpa Shetty. She won the celebrity edition of
Total Wipeout in 2010.
Early life
Lloyd was born in
Liverpool,
England, the daughter of Jackie and Arthur Lloyd, a bank manager and engineer respectively. At the age of three months, Lloyd contracted
whooping cough, resulting in damage to her lungs, this led to her developing
asthma. She attended Haileybury school from 1995. Lloyd claims she was bullied in school; however, Chris Yates, the headmaster of one of Lloyd's old schools, St Hilda’s, said, "There's no recollection of her ever being persecuted, she is lying and no teacher can ever recall any incidents where Danielle was bullied. In fact I’ve been led to believe by her former friends that the opposite is true."
She frequently entered competitions in and around Liverpool. Upon finishing school, she decided to pursue a dual career in modelling and as a beautician specializing in
massage. She is a qualified
nail technician
Just as she was beginning her modelling career, Lloyd was attacked by her boyfriend at the time. She was dragged from her moving car after an argument with him, suffering abrasions and severe bruising to her body and losing most of her hair. Lloyd later said of the attack:
Deep down you can’t forget what’s happened no matter how much counseling you have. You blame yourself and tell yourself you deserve it – I was given help when I most needed it and I want to be able to help others now. Too many women (1 in 4) suffer domestic violence at some time and support centres such as
Women’s Aid aren’t able to answer all of the calls due to being under resourced. I'll always do all that I can to help raise awareness and help people. Being in a violent relationship, you are constantly living in fear – and that’s no way for anyone to live their life."
Pageantry and early career
Lloyd was crowned
Miss England on 17 July 2004. and competed at
Miss World 2004. On 26 February 2006, Lloyd was named
Miss Great Britain 2006.
On 2 November 2006, she was stripped of her title "following recent claims in the press and magazines and the publicity given on the
Playboy website for their next issue", according to the Miss Great Britain website. The claim they were referring to was that Lloyd had been dating
Teddy Sheringham, who was one of the judges of the pageant, for more than two months before her victory. This was reported by the media after she allegedly said in an interview that Sheringham bought her a pair of shoes for
Christmas. Lloyd continues to claim that the relationship started after the pageant, and that the interview was false. She attributes her topless shoot for the December 2006 issue of
Playboy as the primary reason for the loss of her title.
On 11 January 2007, it was revealed that Lloyd was being sued by the Miss
Great Britain company for breaking her contract and bringing the company into disrepute. The company is asking for full revelation of the sums she earned for the
Playboy pictures, plus costs.
Lloyd next appeared in
FHM magazine and was a finalist of
Miss Maxim 2006. She has had her 32AA breasts increased by surgery three times, and is presently a 32DD. During her last operation, when her old implants were replaced with newer, larger ones, taking her from a 32D to a 32DD, surgeons removed a benign lump in her right breast. Lloyd was worried that it was cancer, but doctors assured her that the lump was harmless. She has revealed that her third operation will be her last, claiming that it is "pointless" going any bigger and that "People say I want to be the new
Jordan, but I definitely don't! I want to be myself. I don't mind her boobs but I think they could only suit her."
In 2006, Lloyd made a memorable appearance on
BBC One's
Test the Nation. She revealed that she thought a statue of former
Prime Minister Winston Churchill was a statue for the first black President.
Celebrity Big Brother 2007
Lloyd joined
Celebrity Big Brother on 3 January 2007, at the start of the series. In her column she stated, "Things I'm looking forward to in the house ...meeting people I'd probably never meet in everyday life, seeing if I can cope with the challenges and letting people at home see me in a different way (I'll be wearing more clothes!!)".
Danielle Lloyd's Gossip! Celebrity spotlight|Danielle Lloyd's Column
Racism row
Lloyd garnered significant negative publicity when thousands of complaints were filed with
Ofcom after she,
Jade Goody, and
Jo O'Meara, were bullying and claims of the three were making racist remarks towards their fellow house mate,
Bollywood star
Shilpa Shetty. Specific comments Lloyd has made about Shetty include "She's a dog" and "They eat with their hands in India, don't they – or is that China? You don't know where her hands have been." In another outburst, Lloyd said "do you get
stubble?"
Edinburgh Evening News On 17 January 2007, Lloyd declared she thought Shetty should "fuck off home", adding that "she can't even speak English properly". After a similar comment by Goody, Lloyd laughed and said to Goody, "That was fucking fantastic, I loved it. I think she should fuck off home."
A newspaper interview made before
Celebrity Big Brother, from November 2006, revealed Lloyd's anti-immigration views: "If I was
sic (a politician), I'd get more people into work and stop people coming into the country. There's so many people who come into England because they know they can get benefits. People who already live here should get the jobs". It has since become apparent that Lloyd was warned against racist behaviour prior to going into the house, in an email sent to her by her agent at the time, Angela de Fouw.
Sky News "Dani's Racism Warning"
Reaction
The alleged racist behaviour created an international outcry, gaining heavy coverage in the Indian media.
Gordon Brown - then the British
Chancellor of the Exchequer - who was visiting India at the time, condemned the programme on the grounds that he is against anything which might damage the perception that the United Kingdom is a country of tolerance.
"Big Brother row goes global",
The Guardian, January 17, 2007. In a statement on 17 January,
Channel 4 defended the programme against charges "of overt racism or racial abuse".
BBC News Channel 4 denies Brother racism However,
Trevor Phillips, head of the
Equality and Human Rights Commission, said "What we are seeing is a noxious brew of old-fashioned class conflict, straightforward bullying, ignorance and quite vicious racial bigotry". He doubted events on
Celebrity Big Brother were part of a broader problem.
Race equality chief: Shilpa comments were racist
Whilst still on
Big Brother and prior to either of their evictions, Shetty herself commented on Lloyd's behaviour, saying, "I let Danielle off because she is so young. They (Jade and Jo) made her look bad. You know what really balances it out for Danielle? Her stupidity. She's so innocent." Shetty has largely retained this stance in further discussion and interviews.
Celebrity Big Brother Danielle's Family 'Destroyed' By Race Row
Lloyd's family released a statement defending Lloyd, denying that she was racist. The statement read, in part:
"Danielle has been brought up in an environment where many close family friends are of varying races and cultural backgrounds - she would be devastated to know that through her naivety she has left her comments open to such drastic misinterpretation. Her relaxed attitude towards cultural and racial differences has left her wide open to criticism globally because she doesn't consider race to be an issue for her and not because race is an issue. As regards to allegations of bullying in the house Danielle has allowed herself to be swept along with the girls and situations and she has said things which she will certainly regret. However Danielle herself was bullied and she would be very remorseful to learn that she is being viewed as a perpetrator of this - "We believe however that her allegiance to the other girls has more to do with class differences between them all and Shilpa."
Eviction
Lloyd eventually came fifth in the contest, with 3.3% of the vote to save her.
Big Brother 8 Vote During her post-eviction interview with
Davina McCall she said, "I feel terrible" and insisted her comments had nothing to do with Shetty's race, but rather a simple personality/ culture clash. Lloyd apologised for her behaviour towards the Bollywood star, insisting her remarks had been made "in the heat of the moment. I wasn't laughing at Shilpa... it was just nerves. I hate confrontation." Asked what she had learned on the show, she said, "Not to be such a bitch."
BBC News "Lloyd apologises for race row"
Post Celebrity Big Brother
As a result of her behaviour on the show, Lloyd lost six-figure modelling contracts with motorcycle insurance firm
Bennetts, urban fashion label
Rocawear, and designer lingerie website BeCheeky.com. Having limited her career damage from
CBB5, Lloyd has continued her non-modelling career as a professional "celebrity for hire." Since her departure from
Celebrity Big Brother, Lloyd has also made various promotional appearances. On 13 April, she flew to
Dublin with
Coronation Street actor
Ryan Thomas to open a nightclub in the suburb of Rathfarnham, reportedly at a fee of
€6,000 for the short appearance.
Rathfarnham Community Website
Lloyd has also continued her modelling career, and has appeared on numerous covers of the
Daily Star newspaper (initially at a rate of at least three to four times a week in the months following the end of Big Brother) after signing an exclusive deal with the publication. Lloyd has also appeared on the cover of
Maxim,
Loaded,
Nuts and
Zoo several times, as well as featuring in
FHM and
Ice. She has also secured a contract as the face of
Ladbrokes Poker.
In May 2007, Lloyd attended
Shilpa Shetty's movie premiere at
Leicester Square. The movie,
Life in a... Metro was the first Bollywood movie Lloyd has seen. The two hugged and kissed on the red carpet in front of fans.
In 2007, Lloyd launched a mobile phone safety campaign after her own mobile was stolen in a Liverpool club. The "Keep It Safe & Secure" (KISS) campaign, backed by the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit encourages mobile users to take greater safety precautions when using their phone. In December 2007, Lloyd released a workout DVD entitled
Keep Fit, Look Fit.
Throughout 2007 and 2008, Lloyd has made numerous television appearances including a guest spot on
ITV2's
WAGs Boutique and the
celebrity edition of
Gladiators. She also participated in, and won £8,950 on a Glamour Models Special of
The Weakest Link. Lloyd donated her winnings from both
Celebrity Big Brother and
The Weakest Link to the
Linda McCartney Centre located at the
Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
Lloyd appeared in her own documentary,
Dangerous Love: A Comic Relief Special (first broadcast on 3 March 2009), which examined the subject of violence against females in teen relationships. In the programme, she described the abuse she received (including a broken cheekbone) during her turbulent relationship and visited organisations funded by Comic Relief.
On the 2 January 2010, a Celebrity edition of
Total Wipeout aired on the
BBC, in which Lloyd participated. She cleared all the rounds and went on to win the entire competition. She raised £10,000 for the charity Guiding Light/The Lantern Project.
Lloyd made her film debut in the 2010 English horror Cut.
Personal life
Since the split from
Teddy Sheringham, Lloyd has dated
Marcus Bent and
Jermain Defoe and was briefly engaged to pop-star
DJ Ironik.
On 26 May 2009, Lloyd was pictured lying on the pavement outside a nightclub, bloodied and clearly upset after an unprovoked attack. She reportedly required emergency plastic surgery on a wound on her leg, after she was thrown onto a table full of glasses.
On 1 December 2009, Lloyd announced that she and footballer
Jamie O'Hara had become engaged.
On 3 March 2010, Lloyd's spokesman announced they were expecting their first child,
Danielle Lloyd 'excited, but nervous' as she announces she's pregnant with fiance Jamie O'Hara's baby.
Daily Mail and on 11 July 2010, Lloyd gave birth to their son Archie O'Hara in London.
References
External links