She was the ultimate 90s pin-up, the glamour girl with looks, brains and personality who was once voted the eighth sexiest woman in the world.
But fast forward three decades and Melanie Sykes – once a successful model and presenter with a string of high-profile boyfriends and legions of male fans – has practically vanished from the public eye.
Now, the former Big Breakfast star, 54, spends her days painting – even dabbling in nude self-portraits – writing about her various health struggles and shunning showbiz parties after quitting the bright lights of the big smoke for a quiet life in the Yorkshire countryside.
And pals insist she "feels like a completely different person" to the bombshell brunette who kickstarted her career in an ad for Boddington's beer.
A source told The Sun: "She has had a really tough few years dealing with various health issues, and has openly admitted she has PTSD from working in the TV industry."
Quit London for Yorkshire
Mel has also openly documented her struggles with autism since being diagnosed in 2021, and publicly stated she believes she has Tourette's Syndrome too.
The source added: "She feels like a totally changed woman from the one that was on our screens for all those years, and she is focusing on healing from her trauma, as well as focusing on her health.
Her life isn't anywhere near as glamorous as it once was, but she is much happier. She has found a love of painting, which has been really therapeutic for her.
She's even painted some nude self-portraits of herself which she has shared on her social media.
She finds it very liberating – she wanted to practice drawing the female form, so she figured why not make herself the model?"
Mel's journey from lairy ladette to practical obscurity stems from a tumultuous time in the TV industry, most notably her experience on Celebrity Masterchef in 2021, which became the catalyst for her to quit the business for good.
'I was done'
The brave mother of two sensationally walked away from her successful career after Gregg Wallace, who last week was sacked from the show following an enquiry into alleged misconduct, made inappropriate comments to her on set.
Mel claims that Gregg asked her if models eat, something she found "ignorant," before telling her that being on Masterchef would help her career.
"I didn't know what to say," she wrote later. "So I smiled and said: 'Yes,' but I was really thinking: 'Yes, you have finally helped me decide to end my television career once and for all. I was done."
She called Gregg's behaviour towards her "unprofessional" and "jaw-dropping", said she didn't like him being around her and even made an informal complaint against the former greengrocer.
Earlier this month, 45 out of 83 allegations made against him during his tenure on the show were substantiated.
But despite the victory for Gregg's victims, and his insistence that he is "deeply sorry" for his actions, it's not likely to instigate a return to the limelight for Mel.
These days, Mel prefers to keep in touch with her fans via online mediums where she is in control.
'Industry creates monsters'
She boasts almost 300k followers on Instagram and 6.45k subscribers to her YouTube channel, also writes a regular Substack blog, following the closure of her magazine, The Frank, last year.
Using her various outlets, she regularly updates fans on her mental health, often sharing her artwork with hashtags such as "recovery", "blessed", and "healing" or sitting down to address viewers with videos that cover everything from menopause and her autism diagnosis to her TV experiences and health woes.
She spoke recently about suffering from an irregular heartbeat, which she claimed doctors ignored and also talked at length about a recent battle with alopecia, both of which she said were triggered by the allegations made against former Let's Do Lunch co-host Gino D'ACampo, earlier this year.
After learning Gino was accused of misconduct, Mel "didn't sleep a wink", she has said.
"This industry creates monsters," she said on her YouTube channel, Melanie Sykes Is.
"I feel like I was in a war zone in that industry – 24 years of battling through an industry that didn't feel right to me anyway."
Since walking away from her lucrative telly jobs, Mel doesn't appear to be making the same money she did in her heyday, when she fronted shows such as Today with Des and Mel, Shop Well For Less and was the voice of the Blind Date reboot.
But our insider insists she is getting by.
The source said: "Obviously she doesn't have the income she once had from all her TV and modelling jobs, which has been challenging and stressful at times, but she has savings and she makes money from writing her Substack newsletter, still has some royalties from her biography and she gets paid to speak at various festivals and events.
"She's also been getting funding for some film projects, which she is working on behind the camera and hopes one day to be able to make a living from her paintings."
Mel, who came third in I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! in 2014, was once a well-known face on the showbiz circuit.
Her modelling career, followed by a successful stint as a reporter on MTV and The Big Breakfast, catapulted her to fame and lads' mags couldn't get enough of her.
As a result Mel dated a string of famous faces, including Steve Coogan, Max Beesley and even Olly Murs. She was also in a long-term romance with Bros singer Matt Goss, which ended in 1997, when she discovered he was cheating on her.
She went on to marry twice, once in 2001 to actor Daniel Caltagirone, father of her two sons, Roman, 23, and Valentino, 21 and later, in 2013, to roofer Jack Cockings, a union which lasted barely three years. She also famously enjoyed a romance with a 24 year old-gondolier, Riccardo Simionato, who she met on a canal in Venice in 2020.
Now, however, those days of public romances are behind her.
"You won't catch Mel getting snapped with a lover again," says a friend.
"She feels very scarred by how some of her romances played out in the media, and she feels like the way her love life was scrutinised impacted her relationships. These days, she is focused on putting herself first, not a man."
As for her old TV pals, Mel still keeps in touch with a few people from the industry, including Alan Carr, but, according to our source, a lot of her "showbiz friendships have fallen by the wayside".
"Mel prefers to keep a small circle of close friends," our insider said. "Since being diagnosed as neurodivergent, she has learnt a lot about herself and realised she doesn't have the energy to cope with lots of casual, flighty friendships, she finds it really draining."
Looking to the future, feisty Mel has vowed to continue to use her voice to speak out about the wrongdoings in the TV industry with friends insisting she "isn't afraid to call out the wrongdoings and BS she has experienced."
The source continued, "It's really inspiring to see how far she has come. A lot of people who have been through what Mel has been through would have totally crumbled, but she is a survivor.
"She's living proof that you can fall down in life and not only survive – but start all over again."
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