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Abi Titmuss
Born	Abigail Titmuss 8 February 1976 (1976-02-08) (age 32)[1] Ruskington, Lincolnshire, England
Occupation	actress; TV presenter; author

Abigail Evelyn Titmuss, best known as Abi Titmuss, (born 8 February 1976 in Ruskington, Lincolnshire) is an English glamour model turned television personality and actress.

Biography

She grew up in Ruskington, where her parents were teachers, and took her A levels at Kesteven and Sleaford High School. She played the clarinet at school. Her parents divorced when she was 17, and her father moved to Argyll, in Scotland, where he re-married. Her mother is secretary of Sleaford Museum Trust. She graduated from City University in St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1998, and became a staff nurse at London's University College Hospital. She also worked at the Royal Brompton Hospital, and while there she was harassed by a senior house officer, Dr. Shibley Rahman, in 2004. After these incidents (which included confronting Titmuss while she showered naked), Dr. Rahman was eventually found guilty of misconduct by a General Medical Council tribunal.^[2]

Titmuss met TV presenter John Leslie at a party in a pub on Fulham Road in London in 1998. The pair quickly formed a relationship, and Titmuss lived between her student nurse accommodation at the hospital and Leslie's home in Barnes, south-west London.

In 2002 presenter Ulrika Jonsson released her autobiography, in which she suggested that she had been indecently assaulted earlier in her career by a now well-known TV presenter. Weeks later, the News of the World ran front page pictures of John Leslie snorting cocaine in a cafe. The following week, pictures appeared in the paper of Leslie, Titmuss and other women taking part in sex-sessions at Leslie's home, including Lanre Onabowale, posing as basketball player Jayson Blayde, and his girlfriend.

Trial of John Leslie

The following week on Matthew Wright's live Five morning television show, Leslie was named as the anonymous celebrity linked to the rape accusation in Jonsson's autobiography.

Leslie was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Force, and faced a court trial, throughout which Titmuss was present at his side. When Leslie was found not guilty, the assumption was that the couple would continue their relationship. However, Leslie's career had stalled, whereas Titmuss had raised her image to the point where she was offered various television presenting jobs. Her tabloid-friendly looks and ease in front of the camera gained her a part-time post as a reporter for Leslie's friends Richard and Judy, undertaking occasional projects while continuing her job as a nurse.

Glamour career

Titmuss undertook a series of interviews promoting her image as a real sex star and Britain's #1 pinup. In her own words to the Sunday Mirror she stated: "I'm not like those glamour girls who say: 'I'm really dirty, I'm really bad', then just pose around. I really am dirty and bad - I love sex. I've always been really good with my tongue and it's very long, girls love it as well!"^[3]

She took up presenting on pornographic channel Television X, released a fitness video, authored an erotic novel published by Black Lace, and made personal appearances in nightclubs all over the UK and Ireland. After a photo shoot opportunity offered by FHM of a two page spread, she eventually was featured in a three page spread and made the cover. In the following year, she made 38 front page appearances in 2004 and 2005 for many UK men's magazines, such as FHM , Nuts, Zoo Weekly, Loaded, GQ and Maxim magazines, others such as The Sunday Times Style and in several tabloid newspapers including The Sun, The News Of The World, The Daily Mirror, The People and The Daily Star - each photoshot made her a minimum of £20,000 per session. Titmuss was voted by readers as #7 in FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005, and wrote a regular sex advice column for the magazine. In December 2004, Titmuss appeared on the front cover of FHM magazine with Victoria Silvstedt. At the height of her fame in 2004/5, she could command up to £30,000 a day for appearing on the front page of Nuts or Zoo^{citation needed}.

She appeared on ITV1's Celebrity Love Island. Her other television work includes training as a chef on the 2004 series of Hell's Kitchen, and in 2005, she appeared on Channel 4's The Friday Night Project as a regular guest feature, and in "Abi Titmuss: A Modern Day Morality Tale", a fly-on-the-wall documentary for Channel 4.

In 2005, Titmuss appeared in a high fashion shoot in Pop magazine, which commented on her status as the Face of 21st century celebrity.

After taking a break from modelling work, Titmuss relaunched her glamour career as a brunette with an appearance on the cover of Zoo Weekly magazine and the sale of the official Abi Titmuss Calendar 2007.

She recently appeared as a celebrity on reality series Deadline with Janet Street Porter as an editor on ITV2. The show followed a number of celebrities as they attempted to produce a celebrity-based magazine each week, published as a supplement to Closer magazine. Titmuss was the fourth celebrity to be sacked from the show. She has previously guest-presented shows on Virgin Radio, MTV and LBC radio.

On April 25, 2007, it was announced that Titmuss had made an appearance for a third year running in FHM's annual 100 Sexiest Women in the World readers' poll, peaking at #80 (#7 in 2005, #95 in 2004), however Titmuss has recently announced her intention to "retire" from the world of glamour modelling.

Acting

After taking a short course at the Central School of Speech and Drama, Titmuss made her West End acting debut in March 2006 playing a prostitute with a multiple personality disorder in Two Way Mirror by Arthur Miller, at the Courtyard Theatre in Kings Cross. Despite her self-confessed nervousness, theatre critics actually praised her first foray into the world of acting, citing that she had great potential and was clearly a capable actress.^{citation needed}

In 2006, Titmuss filmed a small role in the major motion picture Goal! 2.

Titmuss was due to have been the subject of a theatre production in a musical satire entitled Being Abi, performed by students in her home county of Lincolnshire. Devised by pupils at Boston College in May 2006, it was scheduled for a three-day run before being cancelled by two of the performers' concerned parents, who objected to some of the production's content.^[4]

In February 2007, Titmuss won a Fringe Report Award for Best West End Debut for her role in Two Way Mirror.^[5]

Titmuss has most recently appeared in the second series premiere of Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive, which aired 30 April, 2007 on BBC Three and as a character called "Gezebelle" in an episode of Katy Brand's Big Ass show, a new Sketch Comedy series forITV2.

From 26 February to 23 March 2008, Titmuss appeared in the black comedy Fat Christ at the King's Head Theatre in Islington, London.

In November 2008 she is due to appear in the long-running touring play Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners, produced by Marc Sinden.

She has been cast in small roles in the new British Independent Film's Do Elephants Pray? & Mixed Up and will play a Nun in an episode of the 4th series of Hotel Babylon for the BBC.

Publications

Titmuss produced a book co-written with Jayne Lockwood, published on July 7 2005 called Ten Fantasies (ISBN 9780753510377), by Virgin Books, in which the content is about her ten most secret (sexual) fantasies. She has banned her mother from reading it. Her memoir, The Secret Diaries of Abigail Titmuss will be released by Headline Review on the 24 July 2008.^[6]

Personal life

She had her first serious relationship with John Longford, when living in Ruskington. Following her relationship with John Leslie, her personal life is closely followed. She dated comedians David Walliams and Patrick McGuinness post break-up with Leslie, and had a longer term relationship with fellow "Celebrity Love Island" contestant Lee Sharpe. After Sharpe had a series of affairs (including with Big Brother star Lisa Jeynes), the relationship broke up, and Titmuss had a short relationship with dancer Brendan Cole, and was linked to Keeley Hazell and wealthy Greek Kebab shop owner Michael Baggs.^[7].

On 23 July 2008 she announced, on the Richard & Judy Talk Show, that she had been dating actor Marc Warren from the Hustle (TV series) for the last year.

References

External links

• Abi Titmuss at the Internet Movie Database
• Abi Titmuss feature at Maxim magazine
• Article about her in The Independent newspaper
• 2005 interview in the Times - Jasper Gerard
• Article from loaded magazine