Amanda Holden

Early life

Although born in Portsmouth, Holden spent much of her childhood in Bishop's Waltham and aged 9 she joined Bishop’s Waltham Little Theatre Company. She attended Swanmore Secondary School (now Swanmore College), where a teacher recalled that she had a natural talent on stage. At 16 she moved to Bournemouth, and then attended Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts).

Television

Holden's first television appearance was as a contestant on the game show Blind Date in 1991. From 2006 to 2008, Holden appeared as Sarah Trevanian in three series of ITV's Wild at Heart co-starring Stephen Tompkinson.

Holden's other TV credits include three series of the comedy Kiss Me Kate with Caroline Quentin and Chris Langham, three series of the ITV's The Grimleys, Celeb with Harry Enfield, BBC series Hearts and Bones with Damian Lewis, the Jonathan Creek episode "The Problem at Gallowes Gate" and a Boxing Day special Marple opposite Geraldine McEwan and John Hannah. She also co-starred with Bill Nighy and Tom Courtenay in Ready When You Are, Mr McGill, Jack Rosenthal's comedy drama.

Holden is currently a judge on Britain's Got Talent along with Simon Cowell, David Walliams, and Alesha Dixon . She joined the show in 2007 and this is her best known role.

She has appeared on various British series such as Smack the Pony, EastEnders, Hearts and Bones, Cutting It and with Harry Enfield in comedy series Celeb.

In 2009, Holden appeared as Lizzie, the Ring Mistress in the BBC sitcom Big Top. In April 2009, it was reported that the US network CBS had offered Holden the job of one-time guest presenter on The Early Show, a daytime talk show. On 1 June 2009, she appeared with regular presenters Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez. Holden has since signed up with CBS as a British correspondent for The Early Show.

From 2009 until 2014, Holden co-presented A Night of Heroes: The Sun Military Awards annually on ITV with Phillip Schofield. In January 2010, she presented her own four-part series, Amanda Holden's Fantasy Lives, in which she tried out four of her dream jobs including working as a showgirl in Paris and a magician's assistant in Las Vegas.

In 2010, Holden co-presented The Door with Chris Tarrant. In 2011, Holden narrated the documentary The Nation's Favourite Bee Gees Song on ITV. On 6 July 2012, Holden guest presented an episode of Lorraine, standing in for Lorraine Kelly. She returned to guest present six further episodes of the show from 4–8 April and 4 July 2016.

In 2012, Holden presented talent show Superstar on ITV. On 24 March 2014, she hosted an episode of the Channel 4 show Dispatches about the treatment for stillbirths and miscarriages.

From 22 September to 18 December 2014, Holden filled in as a co-host on This Morning with Phillip Schofield during Holly Willoughby's maternity leave. She took a short break in January and February 2015 to record the Britain's Got Talent auditions. Christine Lampard stood in for Holden during this time, before she returning to the show from 2 March until 17 July 2015. She returned to This Morning in 2017, to co-present an episode with Ben Shephard.

Holden presented a six-part factual series for ITV called Give a Pet a Home which worked alongside the RSPCA finding homes for animals. The series aired in April and May 2015.

On 18 December 2015, Holden was part of the presenting team for ITV's Christmas telethon Text Santa. In 2016, she presented I've Got Something To Tell You, a factual series for W. She appeared as Miss Pentangle in CBBC's The Worst Witch in 2017.

Theatre

Holden has appeared in several stage musicals and in 2004, was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in the West End production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, which closed earlier than expected in June 2004.

Holden finished playing the role of Princess Fiona in the original West End production of Shrek the Musical, which began on 6 May 2011. The show opened at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 14 June 2011. She starred with Nigel Lindsay, Richard Blackwood and Nigel Harman. Holden departed the show on 3 October 2011, ten weeks earlier than planned, to focus on her unborn child and was replaced by Girls Aloud singer Kimberley Walsh. For this role, Holden won the WhatsOnStage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Actress in a Musical. In 2016, Holden starred in a West End revival of Stepping Out and reprised her role when it opened at the Vaudeville Theatre in March 2017.

Film

In 1996, Holden played Pamela in Intimate Relations. In 1999, she appeared as a shoe shop assistant in Virtual Sexuality. She was uncredited in the 2013 film One Chance.

Other work

In July 2009, Holden became a gossip columnist for the News of the World.

From 2010 until 2012, Holden appeared in television commercial adverts for supermarket chain Tesco. Since 2012, she has appeared in the television commercial adverts for Danone Oykos low fat yoghurt.

In October 2013, Amanda released her autobiography called No Holding Back which became a Sunday Times best-seller.

In 2015, she was the new face of the Alpen Brighter Morning Challenge.

Personal life

She married comedian Les Dennis in June 1995. They had a temporary split in 2000 when Holden's affair with actor Neil Morrissey was exposed in the press, before eventually separating in December 2002 and divorcing in 2003. Around this time, she alleges that she was sexually assaulted by an "unnamed famous comedian" at a public event.

Amanda has been vegetarian since she was thirteen.

On 20 January 2006, Holden gave birth to her first child with her fiancé, record producer Chris Hughes. She married Hughes at Babington House, Somerset, on 10 December 2008 with former Formula One racing driver David Coulthard acting as best man. After a miscarriage in 2010, she suffered their son being stillborn at seven months in 2011. On 23 January 2012 she gave birth to their second daughter despite medical complications.

Holden campaigned to keep a Sainsbury's supermarket out of Bishop's Waltham. Residents of her hometown later accused her of a double standard in November 2010 when she signed a deal with Tesco, the UK's largest supermarket chain.

In December 2016 Holden's ancestry was the subject of a BBC programme in the Who Do You Think You Are? series. The investigation discovered that her 5x great-grandfather Collin Thomas served a year's imprisonment, after breaking his apprenticeship as a cordwainer, by enlisting in the Royal Navy aged 15. Ten years later, while serving in the British Army after the Peninsular War, he met and married a Frenchwoman and began a family near Bordeaux in South Western France, before then moving his wife and eldest children back to his home in Cornwall. In addition, it transpired that her grandfather Frank Holden, a psychiatric nurse, was aboard the RMS Lancastria, when it was bombed and sunk by the German Luftwaffe in June 1940 outside the port of Saint-Nazaire and sank with the loss of thousands of lives. He committed suicide at the age of 71.

Charity

Holden fronted Everton's breast cancer awareness campaign, sporting a limited edition baby pink club shirt, the colour of breast cancer awareness. She is a patron of the football club's charity, Everton in the Community. In September 2011, Holden was sponsored to bake a cake for every child in the Great Ormond Street Hospital.

On 13 April 2008, Holden ran the London Marathon in 4 hours and 13 minutes, in the name of the Born Free Foundation, having collected public and celebrity sponsors online. Since 2013, Holden has presented the RSPCA's Animal Hero Awards.

In 2013, she became a celebrity ambassador for Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, following her work with Pedigree's 'Buy One, Feed One' campaign that she, along with Paul O'Grady have been supporting together. O'Grady is also an ambassador for Battersea.