AMANDA Holden has revealed that Britain’s Got Talent liberated her from the “cheating wife” label she got from her headline-hitting personal life.
The actress couldn’t shake her tarnished image after her affair with Neil Morrissey in 2000 and her resulting split from her first husband Les Dennis in 2001.
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But when Simon Cowell gave her a place on the BGT judging panel in 2007 – the show changed people’s perceptions of her.
“Starting out on Britain’s Got Talent was liberating for me,” she told the Daily Mirror.
“I mean, without dragging up my past, I think, at the time I was with Chris, we’d been together for something like five years but people still kept going on about Les and Neil, and all the other stuff.”
The 48-year-old actress is now married to music executive Chris Hughes but 12 years ago she relished the chance to reinvent herself.
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“So what was really nice was that anyone that might’ve had a preconceived idea of me could see who I really was and then really make their mind up,” she said.
“So, if they didn’t like me after, that’s totally fine as well. But I think I was able to make a wider audience understand that I probably wasn’t as bad as I’d been portrayed, or as naughty as I’d been portrayed.
“I am naughty, I stand by that, but in a good way!”
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Amanda will be joined by Simon Cowell, David Walliams and Alesha Dixon to judge a long list of acts in the revamped series Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions.
Speaking ahead of the series premiere, Simon said: “I love the idea that we could do something which is different.
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“Having done the American show, it’s a very different kind of competition between an international act entering your main show and then representing their country on Champions. There is a very different mindset.”
Amanda added: “This show is the cream of talent from around the world. So there’s nothing stupid, there’s nothing to criticise, there’s nothing that needs particularly any direction.
Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions starts 8pm this Saturday on ITV.
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