Leilani Dowding

Career Following her success in beauty pageants, Dowding dropped out of university to pursue a full-time modelling career. She started appearing as a Page 3 girl in The Sun in 1999. Dowding was featured on Page 3 of the Sun on September 11, 2001, before the feature was placed on an eight-day hiatus following the September 11 attacks.

Dowding has featured as a guest on various television shows, modelling on The Big Breakfast and This Morning, and appearing on Faking It, Celebrity Wrestling and Celebrity Fear Factor. She appeared on a charity Page 3 episode of The Weakest Link, competing on behalf of the RSPCA and breast cancer charities.

She has featured in pantomime, playing Tiger Lilly in Peter Pan. Her reality television work has included the US show Tough Love Miami and the British programme The Real Housewives of Cheshire. She also established her own clothing line, the Leiluna Collection. Since 2022, she has been a conservative commentator on media hosted by Mark Steyn.

Personal life Dowding has dated a number of footballers and became known as a "WAG" in the British tabloid press. She was engaged to former Wimbledon and Northern Ireland defender Mark Williams but ended their two-year relationship after he allegedly had an affair with glamour model Linsey Dawn McKenzie. Williams and McKenzie subsequently married. Dowding was also engaged to former Arsenal, West Ham and Middlesbrough attacker Jérémie Aliadière.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dowding stated on twitter that "fat people cause the most strain on the NHS" and blamed them for "making lockdown longer".

She lived in the United States for over a decade, where she was briefly married to American actor and restaurateur Richie Palmer, a former husband of actress Raquel Welch. While living in the US, she began dating Billy Duffy, lead guitarist of British rock band the Cult. She became engaged to Duffy in 2020. The couple moved back to the UK and live in Manchester.