Leilani Dowding
Born (1980-01-30) 30 January 1980[1]
Bournemouth, Dorset, England
Alma materRoyal Holloway, University of London
OccupationGlamour model
Years active1998–present
Height1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
SpouseRichard Palmer (divorced)
RelativesChris Dowding (father)
Zena Dowding (mother)
Melanie Dowding (sister)
Beauty pageant titleholder
TitleMiss Great Britain 1998
Hair colourBrown
Eye colourBrown
Major
competition(s)		Miss Great Britain 1998
(Winner)
Miss Universe 1998
(Unplaced)
Websitewww.leilanifanclub.co.uk

Leilani Dowding (born 30 January 1980)[1] is an English TV host, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Great Britain 1998 and represented her country at Miss Universe 1998 but unplaced.

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]

Dowding and her sister attended St Peter's School in Bournemouth. She gained eleven GCSEs and three A-levels.[1] She began an economics degree at Royal Holloway, University of London, in Surrey, with the intention of becoming a city trader.[2] The then-18-year-old entered and won the 1998 Miss Great Britain competition.[3] 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. 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 The World list.[4]

Dowding has been 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 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.[5]

Dowding has competed in celebrity poker tournaments and done promotional work for Ladbrokes.[1][6][7]

She also appeared in the American TV Reality Show Tough Love Miami, in which she dealt with her own superficiality in order to find a suitable mate.

She has visited Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Cyprus on morale-boosting trips for British troops abroad.[1]

She appeared in the December 2011 issue of Maxim U.S.[8]

TV credits include: The Millionaire Matchmaker (Series 8 Episode 10) and Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles (Series 8 Episode 13).

Dowding has her own clothing line, the Leiluna Collection.

Since 2022 Dowding has been a conservative commentator on shows hosted by Mark Steyn.[9]

Personal life

Dowding has been engaged to former Wimbledon and Northern Ireland defender Mark Williams and was engaged to former Arsenal, West Ham and Middlesbrough attacker Jérémie Aliadière, having previously been in a relationship with former West Ham and Sheffield Wednesday footballer Anwar Uddin.[2][10][11]

She was briefly married to restaurateur Richard Palmer, ex-husband of Raquel Welch, and is now divorced.[12]

For the past two years she has been dating Billy Duffy, lead guitarist of The Cult. Leilani and Duffy got engaged in March 2020.[13]

In 2022, Dowding made remarks about nineteen year old American beauty pageant contestant, Brían Nguyen, who became the first transgender woman to win a pageant through the Miss America organization, referring to her as a "overweight man caked in make up."[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Biography". Leilanifanclub.co.uk. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
  2. 1 2 John Aizlewood (15 January 2006). "The top 10 footballers' Page 3 playmates". The Times. London: News International. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
  3. ↑ "Student Leylani Dowding carries off the Miss Great Britain Universe honours". BBC News. 12 March 1998. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  4. ↑ "The Sexiest Women In The World 2003" Archived 19 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine. FHM. Retrieved on 4 May 2012.
  5. ↑ Beauty and the beast (From Dorset Echo). Archive.dorsetecho.co.uk (27 April 2002). Retrieved on 4 May 2012.
  6. ↑ Rajesh Modha Tops off a Million Dollar Night! | PokerNews. Uk.pokernews.com (16 December 2006). Retrieved on 4 May 2012.
  7. ↑ Ladbrokes Poker Vegas Dream Packages Archived 7 September 2012 at archive.today. Pokerplayer.co.uk (30 March 2009). Retrieved on 4 May 2012.
  8. ↑ Tweet (4 November 2011). "Leilani Dowding". Maxim. Archived from the original on 22 January 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  9. ↑ https://www.steynonline.com/13580/the-best-of-leilani
  10. ↑ Meet The Cast Of Tough Love: Miami. Blog.vh1.com (7 September 2011). Retrieved on 4 May 2012.
  11. ↑ "Leilani sings for England". Dorset Echo. Dorset. 17 May 2002. Archived from the original on 31 March 2007. Retrieved 13 June 2008.
  12. ↑ Russell, Stacey (14 October 2011). "Leilani Dowding Talks Tough Love Miami, Divorce, and Show Drama". Blogs.miaminewtimes.com. Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  13. ↑ Knight, Lewis (16 March 2020). "Real Housewives of Cheshire star Leilani Dowding engaged to rocker Billy Duffy". Mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  14. ↑ Ke, Bryan (22 November 2022). "Crowning of first transgender woman in local Miss America pageant sparks 'woke' criticism". news.yahoo.com. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
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