Veronica Ann Cross, daughter of a Covent Garden

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...

 opera singer, won the Miss United Kingdom beauty pageant in 1973.

At 16 years old, upon leaving school, Cross successfully applied for a job as a photographic model with an agency in London. Soon she was to accept opportunities for television adverts and bit-parts.

In December 1972 she entered a Miss England

Miss England

The Miss England competition is an annual beauty pageant targeted at young females aged 17–24 years living in England. Entrants must hold a British passport to enter....

 heat in Streatham

Streatham

Streatham is a district in Surrey, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...

, which she failed to win. She tried for another heat in London in February and qualified for the final of the Miss England competition and also qualified her to enter the Miss UK pageant.

At the Miss World

Miss World

The Miss World pageant is the oldest surviving major international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951...

 competition, she managed to come sixth, despite suffering from an ovarian cyst.

Life after the pageant

Cross now lives in Poole

Poole

Poole is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester, and Bournemouth adjoins Poole to the east. The Borough of Poole was made a unitary authority in 1997, gaining administrative independence from Dorset County Council...

and works as a show house demonstrator. She takes part in opera singing with a company called Pocket Opera. She is unmarried

Personal quotes

• "I'd spent a month preparing for that by starving myself. I was 8st 5lbs. When I look at pictures I wince at the sight of the jutting collarbone. I can see I looked too thin, but at the time I was delighted by my protruding bones and concave stomach.

Eating so little wasn't good for my health. For six months my periods packed up completely, a sure sign of starvation."

• "[Opera singing has] become the love of my life - I don't have deep regrets about not marrying or having children, but I do regret that I never trained as an opera singer like my mother. If I could trade my title for the chance to work as a professional opera singer I'd do it like a shot.