EXCLUSIVE: Rhian Sugden is set to bare all in her forthcoming memoir, and now, the Mirror can reveal key details from the book, which will share her truth for the first time
Rhian Sugden is ready to set the story straight about her dealings with presenter Vernon Kay, saying ‘people get less for murder’ as she reveals how their texting scandal has haunted her career.
The former Page 3 model, 39, found herself catapulted into the headlines after it emerged she’d exchanged flirty messages with married Vernon.
At the time the scandal broke, Kay had been in a high-profile relationship with his now ex-wife, Tess Daly, for 17 years. Tess was left heartbroken as it also emerged Vernon was exchanging flirty messages with “four or five girls” around the same time. Dad-of-two Vernon has always insisted the messages were banter and that he never acted inappropriately.
But while Rhian, 39, has remained quiet about her part in the upset, she’s set to finally share her truth in her bombshell autobiography.
The Bury-born model and TV star is releasing a tell-all memoir documenting her rise to fame, turbulent years as the country’s longest-serving Page 3 model and her life now as a happily married mother of one. Rhian is married to former Coronation Street star Oliver Mellor, with the couple sharing son George.
Back in 2010, Rhian met and married TV star Vernon in a nightclub, and the two exchanged numbers and sent messages back and forth for four months.
Vernon later came clean, publicly calling himself an ‘idiot’ who had let his family down. He issued an on-air apology to his wife Tess during his BBC Radio 1 show.
Reliving the furore 16 years on, Rhian says that “people get less of a sentence for murder” as she talked about the scandal impacted her. Rhian told the Mirror: “Of course there’ll be mention of him [Vernon, in the book] but I think people are expecting some wild revelation about a sordid affair that didn’t happen.
“People get less of a sentence for murder. I’d understand if there’d been a full-blown affair, but there wasn’t. Yet somehow, nearly 20 years later, it’s still something that follows me around. I’ve spent years building a career and businesses that I’m incredibly proud of, and I’d much rather people talked about those than one chapter of my life that refuses to go away.”
Sources close to the model, say her book won’t be a ‘cheap dig’ at Kay or anyone else she feels has wronged her. “The book isn’t about reopening old wounds or settling scores. It’s about finally telling the story that’s never been told. People think they know Rhian because of a handful of tabloid headlines, but that’s just one tiny chapter of an extraordinary life,” said an insider.
“Rhian and Vernon both moved on with their lives, but somehow it’s always Rhian whose name gets dragged back into the headlines.”
Rhian will also open up about her ill-fated appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, after signing up to appear on the reality show in the wake of the Vernon text-gate. Rhian competed on the show in 2012 and was the third housemate to be evicted.
“She was a young woman trying to clear her name when she went into Celebrity Big Brother. Looking back, she entered the house for all the wrong reasons,” said the insider.
Rhian said of her reality TV stint: “I was too bothered about people liking me, whereas now I don’t really give a s**t, I’d probably be more myself, which can be a bit wild and weird, I’d relax more this time.
“I was so young and I just wanted people’s approval but now I’m older, I’m like, f**k other people. I don’t think they’d have me again.” Discussing her time in the house, she laughed: “I had a f***ing awful year to be fair.”
Rhian’s memoir will chart her journey from growing up in a working-class family in Greater Manchester to becoming the longest-standing Page 3 glamour model in Britain, navigating the objectification that came with that world, building multiple successful businesses, and ultimately generating more than £1 million through her career and entrepreneurial ventures.
“It covers the highs, the lows, the friendships, the celebrity relationships, the public scrutiny and everything she learned along the way.” Having spent her adult life under the glare of the media and, most recently, social media, Rhian is no longer worried about what people may think of her.
“She’s no longer interested in what people think of her. She’s happily married, successful and in a completely different place in life. This book is about showing people the real Rhian.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
