Leilani Dowding
| Leilani Dowding | |
|---|---|
| 220px | |
| Born | 30 January 1980 [1] Bournemouth, Dorset, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | English-Filipina |
| Alma mater | Royal Holloway, University of London |
| Occupation | Glamour model |
| Years active | 1998–present |
| Relatives | Chris Dowding (father) Zena Dowding (mother) Melanie Dowding (sister) |
| Website | www |
| Modelling information | |
| Height | 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in) |
| Weight | 112 lb (51 kg) |
| Hair colour | Brown |
| Eye colour | Brown |
Leilani Dowding (born 30 January 1980)[1] is an English former Page 3 girl, glamour model, television celebrity, and the UK representative at Miss Universe 1998.
Early life
Dowding grew up in Bournemouth, and has a younger sister Melanie. They were brought up Roman Catholic by their Filipina mother Zena, and British father Chris.[1] Leilani was named for her mother's cousin and her name literally means "heavenly flower".[2]
Dowding and her sister attended St Peter's School in Bournemouth. She did well in school, earning eleven GCSEs and three A-levels.[1] She studied for an economics degree at Royal Holloway, University of London, in Surrey, with the intention of becoming a city trader.[3] The then eighteen-year-old entered and won the 1998 Miss Great Britain competition.[4] In Hawaii later that year she became the first woman of Asian descent to represent Britain in the Miss Universe pageant.[1]
Career
After her success in beauty pageants, Dowding dropped out of university to pursue a full-time modelling career.[1] Although she had not originally considered topless modelling, she started appearing as a Page 3 girl in The Sun in 1999.[1] Her younger sister Melanie ("Mel") Dowding also had a brief career as a model.
In 2003 she was rated #89 on the FHM Sexiest Women in World list.[5]
Dowding has been a guest on various British television shows, modelling on the Big Breakfast and This Morning, and appearing on Faking It Celebrity Wrestling and Celebrity Fear Factor.[6] She has also enjoyed a season in pantomime as Tiger Lilly in Peter Pan.[1]
Dowding appeared on a charity Page 3 episode of The Weakest Link where she lost out in the final round to Jakki Degg. Dowding was competing on behalf of the RSPCA and breast cancer charities.[7] She joked before the show: "I look forward to using my brain for the first time in three years."[8]
Dowding has competed in celebrity poker tournaments and done promotional work for Ladbrokes.[1][9][10]
She also appears in the American TV Reality Show Tough Love Miami, in which she deals with her own superficiality in order to find a suitable mate.
She has travelled to Bosnia, Kosovo. Iraq and Cyprus on morale-boosting trips for British troops abroad.[1]
She appeared in the December 2011 edition of US Maxim [11]
Dowding has her own clothing line, the Leiluna Collection.
Personal life
Dowding has been engaged to former Wimbledon and Northern Ireland defender Mark Williams and was engaged to former Middlesbrough attacker Jérémie Aliadière.[3][12] She had been briefly married to restaurateur Richard Palmer - ex-husband of Raquel Welch [13][14]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ The Sexiest Women In The World 2003 | Girls. FHM.com. Retrieved on 4 May 2012.
- ↑ Leilani Dowding at the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ Beauty and the beast (From Dorset Echo). Archive.dorsetecho.co.uk (27 April 2002). Retrieved on 4 May 2012.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Rajesh Modha Tops off a Million Dollar Night! | PokerNews. Uk.pokernews.com (16 December 2006). Retrieved on 4 May 2012.
- ↑ Ladbrokes Poker Vegas Dream Packages. Pokerplayer.co.uk (30 March 2009). Retrieved on 4 May 2012.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Meet The Cast Of Tough Love: Miami. Blog.vh1.com (7 September 2011). Retrieved on 4 May 2012.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
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- Leilani Dowding at the Internet Movie Database
- Leilani Dowding on TwitterLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
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- Pages with broken file links
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- 1980 births
- Living people
- English people of Filipino descent
- English beauty pageant winners
- Miss Universe 1998 contestants
- Page 3 girls
- Footballers' wives and girlfriends
- People from Bournemouth
- Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London
