Danielle Lloyd was born December 16, 1983, in Liverpool, England. The daughter of a respected bank manager and an engineer, Danielle was a sickly child who contracted whooping cough at the age of 3 months. The affliction left her lungs severely weakened and she suffered from asthma for most of her early years. Despite her condition, Danielle still managed to get into plenty of mischief. “I was always dancing and running.” she recalls. In fact, Danielle’s long legs proved to be so adept at running that she represented her county in cross country running and hurdles. She also competed nationally as a member of the Sports Acrobatics Liverpool Team.
Danielle turned her attention from athletics to modeling at the age of 16, which was when she began entering a number of competitions in her native Liverpool. Then, tragedy struck. The night before the Miss Merseyside Pageant, Danielle was savagely beaten by an abusive boyfriend. ”I was attacked and dragged from my car by my hair, whilst it was still moving,” she recalls. “After falling to the ground I was then dragged along the road feeling every piece of gravel embedding itself into my back, legs, arms and head. Suddenly the car stopped as it hit the curb and rolled over my arm. I lost most of my hair in clumps and had severe cuts and bruising all over my body.” Despite her innumerable injuries, Danielle still went ahead with the competition and miraculously placed in the top seven. That happy ending to an otherwise horrific event encouraged Danielle to enter more competitions and she soon won a bevy of impressive titles including Queen of Clubs World Model of the Future, Miss Hawaiian Tropic Great Britain and Miss Velvet Lounge Liverpool. Every subsequent win also helped her to regain her dignity and confidence.
Danielle’s self-esteem received another tremendous boost on July 17, 2004, when she was crowned Miss England and invited to compete at the Miss World Pageant. Although she came up short against her international peers, Danielle regained top billing on February 26, 2006, when she was named Miss Great Britain. Unfortunately, her victory was short-lived when it was revealed that Danielle had been dating football star Terry Sheringham, one of the pageant’s celebrity judges. That, combined with her decision to bare all in an issue of Playboy, resulted in pageant organizers stripping her of her crown on November 2, 2006. Although most women would have been devastated, Danielle took the news in stride -- much as Vanessa Williams did when she was stripped of her Miss America crown for her Penthouse pictures -- and capitalized on her newfound notoriety with racy appearances in Maxim, FHM and FRONT Magazine.
Although Danielle figured the 2007 show would be a fun-filled experience, the opposite became true when she and several of her housemates were accused of making racist remarks toward their fellow housemate, Shilpa Shetty, a well-known Bollywood starlet. The ensuing backlash cost Danielle six-figure modeling contracts with motorcycle insurance firm Bennetts, fashion label Rocawear and adult website BeCheeky.com. It also ended her relationship with Sheringham, who was disgusted with her very public remarks.
Danielle has since rebounded somewhat by becoming the new face of Ladbrokes Poker and by signing a publishing deal to write a book documenting her mixed experiences in the Celebrity Big Brother house. So, what's next for this lovely Liverpudlian? You might be surprised by her answer: “I would like to visit many countries and work towards helping those people less fortunate than others. ... We have so many children and parents who are living in poverty and have to beg or work from a very early age just to be able to eat day by day. Surely everyone should be able to eat a meal and drink clean fresh water whenever they want.”
