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Abi Titmuss
Abi Titmuss at the 2008 World Series of Poker
Born	Abigail Titmuss Ruskington, Lincolnshire, England

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

Early life and nursing career

Abi Titmuss grew up in Heckington, Lincolnshire where her parents were teachers, and she took her A-levels at Kesteven and Sleaford High School where she played the clarinet. She briefly dated cartoonist BP Perry before moving to Ruskington. Her parents divorced when she was 17, and her father moved to Argyll, Scotland, where he re-married. Her mother is secretary of Sleaford Museum Trust. Titmuss 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 in 2004 who was eventually found guilty of misconduct by a General Medical Council tribunal.^[2]

Abi Titmuss was dating TV presenter John Leslie when Ulrika Johnsson wrote in her autobiography^[3] that an unnamed television presenter had sexually assaulted her earlier in her television career. Matthew Wright named (apparently accidentally) John Leslie as the alleged perpetrator on his television show The Wright Stuff. Abi was brought into the limelight when photographed with John Leslie returning from working a night shift and her picture appeared in British newspapers. Shortly afterwards a private sex tape featuring Titmuss and Leslie was released on the Internet. Abi subsequently abandoned her career as a nurse and became a glamour model.^[4]

Glamour career

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."^[5]

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 topless on page 3 of several tabloid newspapers including The Sun, The News Of The World, The Daily Mirror, The People and 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.^[6]

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. She has also starred on Channel 4's Come Dine With Me.

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 magazine and the sale of the official Abi Titmuss Calendar 2007.

On 25 April 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, at #80 (#7 in 2005, #95 in 2004), however Titmuss has recently announced her intention to take a break from the world of glamour modelling.

Titmuss returned to glamour modelling with a new Nuts shoot in April 2009.

Acting career

After taking a short course at the Central School of Speech and Drama, Titmuss made her London theatre 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.

In 2006, Titmuss filmed a small role in the major motion picture Goal! 2. She was also offered a role in a remake of Galaxy of Terror, a 1980 horror movie set on an alien planet. She turned it down upon learning that her character would be molested and eaten by a giant moth^{[citation needed]}.

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.^[7]

In February 2007, Titmuss won a Fringe Report Award for Best West End Debut for her role in Two Way Mirror.^[8]

She 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.

Titmuss 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 for ITV2.

From 26 February to 23 March 2008, Titmuss appeared in the black comedy Fat Christ at the King's Head Theatre in Islington, London and is due to appear in the touring play Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners.

She has been cast in small roles in British independent films Do Elephants Pray? and Mixed Up. In 2008 she played the role of the 'Mysterious Girl' in Beat 24 Films UK independent feature film 'Frontman' Frontman IMDB Page and Official Site of the film showing photos of Abi on set.

In 2009 Abi was cast in John Godber's play Up 'n' Under to celebrate its 25th Anniversary at the newly refurbished Hull Truck Theatre, Hull. Abi played the role of Hazel the fitness instructor, starring alongside Jamie Crossley (formerly Gladiator "Hunter") and soap actor Lewis Linford (Lee Naylor in Emmerdale).She also had a part in the BBC TV series Hotel Babylon, playing a nun.

From November 2009 Abi appeared in Shakespeare's Macbeth, playing the character of Lady Macbeth with the Seagull Rep. This production opened the Seagull Theatre, Pakefield, Lowestoft before transferring to other East Anglian venues including; The Cut and Halesworth, Bungay's Fisher Theatre and Sudbury Arts Center, until December 4.^[9]

Publications

Titmuss produced a book co-written with Jayne Lockwood, published on 7 July 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 was released by Headline Review on 24 July 2008.^[10]

Personal Life

After dated former footballer Lee Sharpe after they both appeared on "Celebrity Love Island," but broke-up after Sharpe dated other women and the returned to a former girlfriend.^[11] In mid-2008 on the Richard & Judy talk show, Titmuss revealed that she had been dating actor Marc Warren for about a year.^[12] The couple split in mid-2009, after Warren had an affair exposed by the News of the World.^[13]

References

External links

• The Official Abi Titmuss Website and Blog
• Abi Titmuss feature at Maxim magazine
• Article about her in The Independent newspaper
• 2005 interview in the Times - Jasper Gerard
• Article from loaded magazine
• IMDB Page

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