Melinda Messenger
Encyclopedia
Melinda Jayne Messenger (born 23 February 1971) is an English ex-glamour model
Glamour photography
Glamour photography is a genre of photography whereby the subjects, usually female, are portrayed in a romantic or sexually alluring way. The subjects may be fully clothed or seminude, but glamour photography stops short of deliberately arousing the viewer and being pornographic photography.Glamour...

, Page 3 Girl and a former presenter on the magazine programme Live from Studio Five
Live from Studio Five
Live From Studio Five was an early evening, British magazine programme which was produced by Sky News for Channel 5. The show was presented by Kate Walsh and a line-up of other co-presenters during its run. It consisted of interviews and discussing topical issues, with an emphasis on showbusiness...

. She is currently co-broadcaster
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...

 of the reality show Cowboy Builders.

Biography

Messenger was born in Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...

, Wiltshire, the middle child between two brothers, Jamie and Warren. Her parents Terry and Avis divorced when she was aged five. After attending different schools, one of which, Dorcan Technology College, she spent six months working as a flight attendant for Britannia Airways
Britannia Airways
Britannia Airways was the largest charter airline in the United Kingdom, rebranded as Thomsonfly in 2005. Its main bases were Gatwick, London Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow...

. Messenger later joined a local marketing company, rising to become customer services manager, overseeing a staff of 50.

Modelling career

Deciding she wanted to become a model, Messenger was advised by her agent at the Jason Paul Modelling Agency to enhance her breasts, which she enlarged to a 34DD cup. She then took a job modelling for Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....

-based double glazing company Glevum Windows, dressed only in knickers and a bra. After being put up as part of an advertising campaign with the slogan "Class Behind Glass", the posters quickly began disappearing from bus stops, taken by local lads. After a complaint at the lack of clothes on Messenger, the Advertising Standards Authority
Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)
The Advertising Standards Authority is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instances...

 banned the campaign, claiming they were not as "classy" as they claimed to be.

After local newspapers picked up on the story, the Daily Star ran the story on 28 January 1997 as a photo-shoot
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

 of Messenger, under the headline, "Move Over Eva Herzigova
Eva Herzigová
Eva Herzigová is a Czech model and actress.-Early life and career:Herzigová was born in Litvínov, Czechoslovakia . She began her modeling career after winning a modeling beauty contest in Prague in 1989, at the age of sixteen. After arriving in Paris, her popularity increased...

". Soon after Messenger shot to fame, her mother Avis, publicly denounced her for her glamour career choice, and the two became estranged. It wasn't until the birth of Melinda's first son that the two were reconciled. Later in 1997 she won Rear of the Year
Rear of the Year
Rear of the Year is a light-hearted British award for celebrities who are considered to have a notable posterior. It was created by publicity consultant Anthony Edwards and is organised by Rear of the Year Limited.-History:...

.

Signed by modelling agent Yvonne Paul – who had earlier steered Samantha Fox
Samantha Fox
Samantha Karen "Sam" Fox is an English dance-pop singer, actress, and former glamour model. In 1983, at the age of 16, she began her topless modeling career on Page Three of The Sun, and went on to become a popular pin-up girl...

 to fame in the 1980s – Messenger's career took off. Posing for artistes including Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...

, she was poached for exclusive appearance on the The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...

newspaper's Page Three, they later hailed her as the "Girl of the Thrillenium!". Her work for the newspaper entailed visiting the Spanish costas, as well as visits to English seaside resorts – an assignment known as "Mel's Big Bus Tour". She continued working for The Sun until readers voted to ban models with breast implants.

Move from modelling

She appeared in a cameo role in 1999's Virtual Sexuality
Virtual Sexuality
Virtual Sexuality is a 1999 film about a young woman who designs the perfect man at a virtual reality convention, but then an accident occurs causing the man to be brought to life.-Synopsis:...

as Superbra Girl, and co-starred in the 2000 cult movie The Mumbo Jumbo in the role of Princess Vanilla. She worked on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 cult show Eurotrash
Eurotrash (TV series)
Eurotrash is a 30-minute magazine-format programme in English produced by Rapido Television. It was shown in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 from 1993 and was a late-night comical review of weird and wonderful topics from around the world...

and became a popular pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

 actress, taking on roles such as Cinderella (2004–2005) and Aladdin (with Bobby Davro
Bobby Davro
Bobby Davro is a British actor and comedian. He is mainly known for his work as an impressionist...

 and John Rhys-Davies
John Rhys-Davies
John Rhys-Davies is a Welsh actor and voice actor. He is perhaps best known for playing the charismatic Arab excavator Sallah in the Indiana Jones films and the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy...

; Woking
Woking
Woking is a large town and civil parish that shares its name with the surrounding local government district, located in the west of Surrey, UK. It is part of the Greater London Urban Area and the London commuter belt, with frequent trains and a journey time of 24 minutes to Waterloo station....

 – 2005–2006).

Mother and presenter

Following the birth of her first child Morgan on 7 April 2000, which was by emergency caesarian section after she collapsed with pre-eclampsia
Pre-eclampsia
Pre-eclampsia or preeclampsia is a medical condition in which hypertension arises in pregnancy in association with significant amounts of protein in the urine....

, Messenger then concentrated on developing her career as a television presenter.

Messenger released the "Back Into Shape Workout" DVD after the birth of her first child. It was a six week fitness programme designed to get mothers back into shape after the birth of their baby. She appeared on "Noel Edmonds
Noel Edmonds
Noel Ernest Edmonds, is an English broadcaster and executive, who made his name as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presented many light entertainment television programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top of the Pops, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Telly Addicts, Noel's Saturday...

 – Gotcha!" in which she was one of the subjects to receive the treatment from Noel and his team.

Messenger had her own issue of ‘At Home With…” magazine called 'At Home With Melinda Messenger", which was aimed at parents. She joined with chef Antony Worrall Thompson
Antony Worrall Thompson
Henry Antony Cardew Worrall Thompson is a British celebrity chef, television presenter and radio broadcaster.-Biography:...

 in May 2008 for the recipe book “The Sweet Life”, in which she contributed some recipes.

Television

Messenger's TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 career began in 1997 on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

's Eurotrash. That same year she was given her own show on Channel 5 called Melinda's Big Night In.

From 1998, Messenger became assistant in Fort Boyard
Fort Boyard (TV series)
For the fortress see Fort Boyard Fort Boyard is a French game show created by Jacques Antoine that was first broadcast in 1990 and is popular to this day...

on Five which ran for five series. She initially joined ex-Eastender
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

 Leslie Grantham
Leslie Grantham
Leslie Michael Grantham is an English actor best known for his role as "Dirty" Den Watts in the soap opera EastEnders. He is also a convicted murderer, having served 10 years for the killing of a German taxi driver, and he generated significant press coverage as the result of an online sex scandal...

 and later Catweazle
Catweazle
Catweazle was a British television series, created and written by Richard Carpenter which was produced and directed by Quentin Lawrence for London Weekend Television under the LWI banner, and screened in the UK on ITV in 1970 and 1971...

star Geoffrey Bayldon
Geoffrey Bayldon
Geoffrey Bayldon is a British actor. After playing roles in many dramas including Shakespeare, he became known for portraying the title role of the children's series Catweazle , after turning down the opportunity to play both the First and Second Doctors in the long-running BBC science fiction...

 in the game show which tested contestants' physical agility and brainpower on the identically named sea fortress
Fort Boyard
Fort Boyard is a fort located between the Île-d'Aix and the Île d'Oléron in the Pertuis d'Antioche straits, on the west coast of France. Though a fort on Boyard bank was suggested as early as the 17th century, it was not until the 1800s under Napoleon Bonaparte that work began.-Layout:Fort...

 in France.

In 2002, she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother where she was described as a "blonde Vulcan
Vulcan (Star Trek)
Vulcans, or sometimes Vulcanians, are an extraterrestrial humanoid species in the Star Trek universe who evolved on the planet Vulcan, and are noted for their attempt to live by reason and logic with no interference from emotion. They were the first extraterrestrial species in the Star Trek...

" by fellow contestant Sue Perkins
Sue Perkins
Sue Perkins is an English comedienne, broadcaster, actress, and writer.-Education:Perkins was educated at Croham Hurst School, an independent school for girls in Croydon in South London, at the same time as the BBC Breakfast News presenter Susanna Reid...

, who questioned her apparent lack of range of emotions. She has since presented many TV programmes, including Loose Lips
Loose Lips (TV series)
The show Loose Lips was a popular daytime lifestyle and chat show broadcast on the UK channel Living TV.The show ran for some 40 episodes in 2003, and was presented by Richard Arnold and Melinda Messenger....

 (with Richard Arnold
Richard Arnold (TV presenter)
Richard Arnold is a British television presenter. He is currently employed by Seven Network.-Early life:Arnold was born in a house in Hampshire, grew up in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, and attended University of Edinburgh, gaining a MA in English Language and Literature. He then studied journalism at...

), Baby Baby, Can We Still Be Friends, Beat The Dealer and Beat The Crusher.

In 2004, she appeared on Age Swap episode of Celebrity Swap as 83 year-old Margaret Doyle, supposedly Melinda’s old ballet teacher, disguised with prosthetic make-up, a black lycra suit, a red-white wig and fake teeth.

In 2006, Messenger recorded a pilot for a gameshow called Messenger of Doom. It was essentially a remake of The Crystal Maze
The Crystal Maze
The Crystal Maze was a British game show, produced by Chatsworth Television and shown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom between 15 February 1990 and 10 August 1995. There was one series per year, with the first four series presented by Richard O'Brien and the final two by Ed Tudor-Pole, who made...

, with contestants completing a series of challenges in exchange for "life candles." If a contestant failed to complete a challenge, a leather-clad Messenger appeared on screen with the words "I send you to your doom, foolish traveller!" The contestant then spent the next 20 minutes stripped to their underwear in an ice bath. The pilot was well received at test screenings, but the elaborate and expensive sets and costumes discouraged channels from commissioning a full series.

In 2008, Messenger has presented a host of programmes including for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 To Buy or Not to Buy
To Buy or Not to Buy
To Buy or Not to Buy was a British reality television series made between 2003 and 2010 for BBC One in the UK. The final series was the eleventh and contained 90 episodes, in one of two formats—either 30 or 45 minutes in length. It aired on both BBC1 and BBC2...

, ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...

's Bingo Night Live
Bingo Night Live
Bingo Night Live was an interactive television programme featuring a free-to-play bingo game, broadcast in the United Kingdom on the ITV Network...

, and A Garden For Eden for ITV Westcountry.

Messenger's show Cowboy Builders started on Five on 8 January 2009. Alongside this, Melinda was a contestant in the fourth series
Dancing on Ice (Series 4)
The fourth series of Dancing on Ice began on ITV on Sunday 11 January 2009. The series features legendary skaters Christopher Dean and Jayne Torvill, presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and judges Karen Barber, Nicky Slater, Jason Gardiner, Ruthie Henshall and Robin Cousins.The...

 of Dancing on Ice
Dancing on Ice
Dancing on Ice is a British television show co-hosted by Christine Bleakley and Philip Schofield, in which celebrities and their professional partners figure skate in front of a panel of judges. The format, devised by LWT and Granada Television, has been a prime-time hit in eight different...

, which began on 11 January 2009. This was confirmed on 5 January 2009, on This Morning
This Morning (TV series)
This Morning is a British daytime television programme broadcast on ITV. As of September 2011, its main presenters are Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, with various other presenters standing in for illness or contributing to sections of the programme.The...

. She was voted out in Week 7 after losing a surprise skate-off against Jessica Taylor
Jessica Taylor (Liberty X)
Jessica Taylor is an English singer, previously with the Brit Award winning pop group, Liberty X. The group consisted of herself, Tony Lundon, Kevin Simm, Michelle Heaton, and Kelli Young.-Personal life:...

. She had survived three previous skate-offs.

In 2009, Messenger, along with ex-footballer Ian Wright
Ian Wright
Ian Edward Wright, MBE is a retired English footballer turned television and radio personality.Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal, spending six years with the former and seven years with the latter. With Arsenal he has lifted the Premier League title and both major...

 and The Apprentice runner-up Kate Walsh began presenting a new show on Five called Live from Studio Five
Live from Studio Five
Live From Studio Five was an early evening, British magazine programme which was produced by Sky News for Channel 5. The show was presented by Kate Walsh and a line-up of other co-presenters during its run. It consisted of interviews and discussing topical issues, with an emphasis on showbusiness...

. The show was first was broadcast on 14 September 2009 and has run continuously since.

It was announced on 29 January 2010 that Messenger was leaving her role on Live from Studio Five
Live from Studio Five
Live From Studio Five was an early evening, British magazine programme which was produced by Sky News for Channel 5. The show was presented by Kate Walsh and a line-up of other co-presenters during its run. It consisted of interviews and discussing topical issues, with an emphasis on showbusiness...

, to focus on other projects. Her last show was on 26 February 2010. A series of guest hosts have replaced her. Messenger later revealed that she had quit the show due to differences with Wright.

It was confirmed on 5th October 2011 that she would host the new Health Lottery
The Health Lottery
The Health Lottery is a lottery in Great Britain launched in October 2011 where players must choose five different numbers from the range 1 to 50 and match at least three in order to win a prize...

 Draws on ITV 1 and Channel 5.
Health Lottery is run by Northern & Shell a British publishing and television group. The company is owned by Richard Desmond and along with several newspapers and magazines it also operates channel 5 and several porn TV channels.

Personal life

Having dated since they met at his local Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

 night club, Messenger married Welshman
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 Wayne Roberts in Bali
Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...

, Indonesia, on 26 November 1998. The couple have three children: Morgan Kelly (born 7 April 2000), Flynn Jefferson (born 2002) and Evie Brooke (born December 2003). As she suffered from post-natal depression after the birth of her second and third children, although she planned a large family of five/six children she has decided not to have any more. In 2003, Messenger won Quality Street "Celebrity Mum of the Year". Roberts runs a Swindon-based electronics company, of which Messenger is a director.

In 2005, Messenger became concerned for the education of her children, and although the couple had just completed renovation of their Wanborough
Wanborough, Wiltshire
Wanborough is a village and civil parish in the borough of Swindon, Wiltshire. The village is about southeast of Swindon town centre. The parish includes the hamlet of Foxhill, southeast of the village.-History:...

-based 25-room former rectory
Rectory
A rectory is the residence, or former residence, of a rector, most often a Christian cleric, but in some cases an academic rector or other person with that title...

, Messenger insisted that they move closer to a Steiner-Waldorf school in Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

, Berkshire. This brought tensions into the couple's relationship, and, as a result, they separated on 15 April 2008, later re-uniting that same month to discuss their split for a photo-spread in Hello!
Hello!
Hello is a weekly magazine specializing in celebrity news and human-interest stories, published in the United Kingdom since 1988. Hello is sister magazine to ¡Hola!, the Spanish weekly magazine launched in Spain in 1944...



On 22 January 2009, Messenger was made an Ambassador to Barnardo's
Barnardo's
Barnardo's is a British charity founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, to care for vulnerable children and young people. As of 2010, it spends over £190 million each year on more than 400 local services aimed at helping these same groups...

 by its president, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

External links

  • Official Melinda Messenger Website Melinda's Official Website
  • Video Diary of trip to Malawi for the charity ActionAid
    ActionAid
    ActionAid was founded in 1972 as a child sponsorship charity when 88 UK supporters sponsored 88 children in India and Kenya, the focus primarily being to provide children with an education. Global accounts are now reported in Euros and in 2007 and 2008 turnover was close to 180m Euros...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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