She played the title role in the musical stage show Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2004, for which she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award.

Her acting credits on television include The Grimleys (1998–2001), Kiss Me Kate (1999–2001), Cutting It (2002–2004), Wild at Heart (2006–2008), and Big Top (2009).

Holden has also presented various television shows for ITV, including The Sun Military Awards (2009–2014), Superstar (2012), This Morning (2014–2015, 2017), Text Santa (2015), and Give a Pet a Home (2015).

From 2006 to 2008, Holden appeared as Sarah Trevanian in three series of ITV's Wild at Heart co-starring Stephen Tompkinson.

[8] In 1997, she was a cast member of the Channel 5 sketch show, "We Know Where You Live" alongside Simon Pegg, Fiona Allen and Sanjeev Bhaskar.

She co-starred with Bill Nighy and Tom Courtenay in Ready When You Are, Mr. McGill, a comedy drama by Jack Rosenthal.

From 2009 until 2014 Holden co-presented A Night of Heroes: The Sun Military Awards annually on ITV with Phillip Schofield.

In January 2010 she presented her own three-part series, Amanda Holden's Fantasy Lives, in which she tried out three of her dream jobs.

From 22 September to 18 December 2014, Holden filled in as a co-host on This Morning with Phillip Schofield during Holly Willoughby's maternity leave.

[18][19] Holden finished playing the role Princess Fiona in the original West End production of Shrek The Musical, which began on 6 May 2011.

Holden departed the show on 3 October 2011, ten weeks earlier than planned, to focus on her unborn child and was replaced by Girls Aloud singer Kimberley Walsh.

[21] In 2016 Holden starred in a West End revival of Stepping Out[22] and reprised her role when it opened at the Vaudeville Theatre in March 2017.

In April 2019, it was announced Holden would replace Emma Bunton as co-host of Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston, at the same time as it went national on 3 June.

Holden fronted the breast cancer awareness campaign of Everton F.C..[31] She is a patron of the football club's charity.

[33] On 13 April 2008 Holden ran the London Marathon in four hours and thirteen minutes for the Born Free Foundation.

[44] She married Hughes at Babington House,[45] Somerset, on 10 December 2008 with former Formula One racing driver David Coulthard acting as best man.

[53] The investigation discovered that her Cornish 5x great-grandfather, Collin Thomas, served a year's imprisonment after breaking his apprenticeship as a cordwainer by enlisting in the Royal Navy and leaving the United Kingdom aged 15.

Ten years later, while serving in the British Army after the Peninsular War, he met and married a French woman and began a family near Bordeaux, France, then moved his wife and eldest children back to Great Britain.

Residents of her hometown then accused her of a double standard in November 2010 when she signed a deal to appear in advertisements for Tesco, another UK supermarket chain.

[56] Holden is a fan of English Premier League football club Everton F.C., attending home and away games when her schedule allows.