Yahoo News Amanda Holden's heartbreaking baby loss with rarely-seen husband, near-death experience, famous ex and celebrity feud
From stage to small screen and now fully-fledged media personality who's made the headlines for celebrity feuds and racy Instagram outfits - fearlessly frank Amanda Holden has been a household name for more than a quarter of a century.
She's now back on our screens as a judge on Britain's Got Talent alongside Simon Cowell, Bruno Tonioli and Alesha Dixon as the hit ITV talent show returns for its 17th series.
The hard-working star is an early riser, combining her TV work with co-presenting Heart radio's breakfast show alongside Jamie Theakston. And at the age of 53, she's said she's "living the dream" and getting to do everything she loves.
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She's remained loyal to Britain's Got Talent, a show she's been part of since day one, recently incurring the wrath of Sharon Osbourne after she defended boss Simon Cowell in an interview. And her show with comedian Alan Carr, Alan & Amanda’s Italian Job, in which they renovated a derelict home in Sicily, was an unexpected hit and recently had a second series before a new one has been recommissioned for Spain.
Early life
Amanda was born in Hampshire in 1971 and grew up in Bishop’s Waltham, near Winchester. She told Great British Life: “I loved growing up in Hampshire. My childhood memories are nothing but happy ones and at least in part that is because I was totally at home in my surroundings. Whenever I go back now I still feel the same."
Her biological father, Frank Holden, a petty officer in the Royal Navy, left when she was four and Amanda and younger sister, Debbie, were raised by her mother, Judith, and, later, stepfather Les Collister.
Amanda was a natural entertainer and dreamed of the stage an early age, perfecting her Oscar acceptance speech by the age of nine. Her mum, sister and stepdad were treated to regular shows, with Amanda making an entrance wrapped in a pink blanket emblazoned with the words 'Dancing Queen', according to a BBC profile.
She recalled: "I used to rush down on a Sunday, turn the telly off – even if they were watching it – and make up song-and-dance routines." Her family supported her ambitions and at the age of 17 she left home to join London's Mountview Drama School.
She once said: "It was strange being in a room full of people just like me and trying to get my voice heard" - however it didn't hold her back.
Drama school and Blind Date appearance
Amanda cleaned toilets in a B&B and worked as a waitress to put herself through drama school. And while she was studying, she famously appeared as a contestant on the game show Blind Date.
Then aged 19, Amanda donned a black mini dress for the 1991 appearance and sported a blonde bob. She was asked who her ideal candidate for a “knees-up” would be and named film star Jack Nicholson.
When presenter Cilla Black expressed surprise at the choice of a man 34 years her senior, she insisted that she liked mature men. Amanda wasn't chosen by male contestant Barnaby Hands though, and he opted for one of the other singletons on the episode.
Amanda has since addressed speculation that she could host a reboot of the show. When asked about the prospect of its return by Good Morning Britain's Richard Arnold, she replied: "What?! No, no, no, no no! I love that show. It would be perfect for me wouldn’t it? But I’m not doing it." She went on to joke that she and Simon Cowell could host Blind Date together.
Meeting Les Dennis
After leaving drama school, Amanda - then 22 - won a part in a touring production of The Sound of Music in 1993, where she met future husband Les Dennis, who was 39 at the time. Despite the age gap, the couple connected at a party when the tour stopped in Bournemouth, where Les was appearing at another theatre.
They married two years later and at the start, he was famous and Amanda was a nobody - but their tables soon turned. Les said in 2000: “Before, it used be hard when an invitation for a showbiz party would say ‘Les Dennis and guest’. But now we get invitations with ‘Amanda Holden and guest’".
Their relationship later made headlines after she had an affair with actor Neil Morrissey while starring in the BBC's Happy Birthday Shakespeare. They filed for a divorce in 2003, when both were in new relationships.
Their split and attempts to patch up their marriage prompted a media frenzy and Amanda has spoken openly about what she called her "fall from grace", saying she found it "incredibly hard to deal with". She added: "I can't bear not to be liked. Then I had an affair and overnight turned into this awful person. There are no hard feelings with Les.
"I wish him the best, but we've both moved on. I don't believe women have affairs for no reason. Women don't seek sex - we seek love and affirmation."
In his memoir Must The Show Go On?, Les said their marriage "limped on" for two-and-a-half years after Amanda's affair but attributed his exit from Celebrity Big Brother in 2002 as the final nail in the coffin. At the end of his time on the show, presenter Davina McCall said Amanda had taped a message for him.
He wrote: "My heart filled with dread - she couldn't even be bothered to do it live. Suddenly she was on screen, not alone but with two of her Cutting It co-stars. That was my defining moment.
"As viewers watched me watch her jabber on about my amazing honesty, the words 'I love you and I'm proud of you' never crossing her lips, I came to the final decision that this charade of a marriage was over."
The 'waitress that got lucky'
Amanda calls herself a “waitress that got lucky”, according to an interview with The Times in 2023. But there's no denying that she's worked hard to make it to the top of the entertainment tree.
Her first role after graduating from Mountview Theatre School in July 1992 was in ITV's In Suspicious Circumstances with Edward Woodward. She appeared in the film Intimate Relations and the comedy series We Know Where You Live with Simon Pegg for Channel 5 and was a regular guest on BBC 2's Goodness Gracious Me.
She became a household name with the part of Mel in comedy Kiss Me Kate alongside Caroline Quentin in 1998, followed by three series of ITV comedy The Grimleys from 1999 onwards. In 2000 Amanda starred in BBC1 romantic comedy Happy Birthday Shakespeare before Hearts and Bones alongside Damien Lewis. The BBC drama followed a group of friends from Coventry trying to make a living for themselves in London.
She followed it up with ITV drama The Hunt, Sky One show Now You See Her, Harry Enfield comedy series Celeb and sitcom Mad About Alice. Amanda also starred in three series of BAFTA winning Cutting It. From 2006 until 2008 she played Sarah Trevanion in ITV's Wild at Heart with Hayley Mills and Stephen Tomkinson.
Among her stage credits are the title role in West End musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, Princess Fiona in Shrek the Musical and Vera in Stepping Out. Her first presenting stint was in 1998 on Wish You Were Here and she's also hosted This Morning. ITV's Amanda's Fantasy Lives saw her performing as a country singer, dancing as a showgirl and becoming a stunt woman.
For ITV documentary Out of My Depth, she "trained" as a midwife and helped deliver five babies and in 2014 reported for 'Dispatches - Exposting Hospital Heartache', looking at hospital policies around miscarriages and stillbirths.
She's said of her varied career: “I like to do different things. I love being on stage whether it is a musical, a pantomime or a drama; I love the interaction with a live audience. I think that is why Britain’s Got Talent has been so enjoyable; you have the magic of television as well as audience reaction.."
Britain's Got Talent and those revealing outfits
Amanda was announced as a judge for the first series of Britain's Got Talent in 2007, cementing her position in primetime entertainment. When she got the call for the show she was 35 and still a jobbing actress, having just filmed her final scenes on Wild at Heart.
It's not just her decisions on the acts that make headlines - she once wore a backless Julien Macdonald number with a front slash that attracted 663 complaints to Ofcom. It wasn't like that at the start, with her telling The Times: “Oh, I looked terrible in my first season. I was crying to Paul Potts but wearing my top back to front. I had overplucked eyebrows and brown hair. I looked awful. But I soon learnt by watching the stylists — and also the wardrobe budget got bigger.”
She said she finds it "hilarious that a 52-year-old woman’s breasts can get such a lot of press", adding: "I don’t wear revealing outfits on purpose, but look, if you’re going to kick the hornet’s nest, then the odd one is going to fly out.
"We have lots of female producers on BGT who are strong women like me. They check what I’m wearing and then we agree if it’s OK. The attitude is, ‘If we get headlines then we get headlines…’ ”
She has said her BGT role has allowed her to "show people who I really am". She told The Times: “When I was a waitress paying for myself to go through drama school I kind of hoped that things would happen for me in my twenties and thirties, but it’s only really now, in my fifties, that I am getting to live the dream and I am just eternally grateful that BGT gave me a chance.
"Simon Cowell likes to say he made people like me and it’s true. In life, you can’t make everyone like you, but at least I got a chance to change some of the perceptions about me."
Singing dreams and album
Amanda released her debut album, Songs from My Heart in 2020, reaching no 4 in the UK charts. It featured classic musical theatre tracks, including 'I Dreamed a Dream' from Les Misérables and a cover of Evita's 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina'. The first single from the album, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, was released as a fundraiser for the NHS in lockdown
The project began when she sang Tightrope from the Greatest Showman for her wedding anniversary. Her husband loved it, she put it on social media and record label bosses then offered her a her a £1 million contract for a whole album. One critic called it "actually quite good" - but she's adamant that there won't be any more releases.
She said: "I’m not Adele, so why push it? A second album might not work. I dropped the mic at the high point and I’m happy with that.”
Sharon Osbourne feud
Amanda jumped to boss Simon Cowell's defence after former X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne was less than complimentary about him during her stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house. She told the Daily Mail: "I hated seeing certain people in a reality show dissing Simon - he's the person who's given them all the chances, given them a lot of money and a lifestyle they probably wouldn't have had.
"It's bitter and pathetic. It was like Cinderella with her two sisters in the background - just stabby, stabby, stabby."
In true Sharon style, she responded by tagging Amanda into a lengthy post on social media site X. She wrote: "The truth is, you don’t know me, Amanda. You know nothing about my history in the music industry, my achievements, the artists I have worked with, the shows that I’ve produced, and my global celebrity. Unlike you, the brand of Sharon Osbourne is known worldwide."
She closed with: "The bottom line, Amanda, is, that you’ll never be in my league, and you’ve picked on the wrong ugly stepsister."
Amanda appeared unfazed by the drama when she appeared at the Britain's Got Talent press launch alongside her fellow judges, laughing when an onlooker shouted: "Hashtag Team Amanda."
Gruelling fitness regime and 'Mandy Button' youthful looks
Amanda follows a vegetarian diet and is committed to a gruelling fitness regime. According to a profile in The Times last year, she runs four miles three times a week and practises yoga, along with a "Viking workout regime with an Icelandic instructor called Svava Sigbertsdottir".
She said: "I am not a slave to any beauty or fitness regime because I love food too much. I eat cheese and butter and I love a drink", adding that she runs "for my rosé wine in the summer and run for my red wine in winter".
She told the Mirror in 2021 that her youthful looks have led to her being dubbed “Mandy Button” after the movie character Benjamin Button, who aged backwards. She credits her genes but said she would not rule out plastic surgery in the future.
She said: “We’ve got big cheeks in our family and good jawlines. So I think as long as that’s all staying like that, I don’t mind.
"I don’t think I look 50 but I don’t think I look 30. I have been called Mandy Button in the past, which is such a flattering thing!”
She added that she doesn't deny herself anything and loves a drink, telling the Sunday Mirror’s Notebook magazine: "After lockdown, I just think, ‘Don’t deny yourself now, just enjoy life’. If you want a glass of wine or a doughnut, have one."
Marriage to Chris Hughes
After her marriage to Les Dennis ended, Amanda moved on with record producer, Chris Hughes. The couple met at a fashion show in Los Angeles in 2003 and married on December 10, 2008 at St Margaret's Church in Somerset before a reception at the exclusive members' only club Babington House. They have two daughters together – Alexa, 18, and Hollie, 12.
In a chat with OK! Magazine, Amanda discussed what makes her marriage to Chris work so well - and attributes it to lots of laughter. She said: "The main secret behind a successful marriage is to have a bloody good sense of humour! Plus, I really fancy Chris.
"We'll be eating dinner in a restaurant, he'll go to the loo, then I'll look up and catch a glimpse of a man and think he's fit! Then I'll realise, 'Gosh, that's my husband!' I still fancy him."
And she told HELLO! in 2019: "Chris is very funny and errs on the side of lightness. We can make jokes out of any situation throughout the best and darkest times of our lives. He's rubbish at romance, but he's there for the solid things such as keeping my car clean and making sure I relax."
The couple have also been rocked by heartbreak when their son Theo was stillborn in 2011. Amanda previously told how she drove herself to hospital at seven months pregnant after noticing Theo had stopped moving. Speaking on BBC's Dear NHS Superstars special, Amanda described the moment she was told Theo had died.
She said: "Luckily for us, an obstetrician was coming past and Jackie [midwife] said to the obstetrician, 'please can you go in, I can't hear the patient's baby's heartbeat', and then I heard this guttural screaming. It was the most bizarre thing that's ever happened to me because it was me. I didn't know I was doing it. I had no control over myself, I thought it was another person making the noise. All these women were holding me, calming me down. I forgot entirely that I'd have to get the baby out and I'd have to give birth for our son."
They later fell pregnant with daughter Hollie and while they are both thriving now, Amanda nearly died during the “traumatic” experience after going into a coma following her arrival. She previously said on Heart Breakfast: "I actually did pass away for 40 seconds and then I went into a coma, but the NHS were there holding my hand and my husband’s hand, who – I feel sorry for him to be honest – he went through it, watching it all."
