[3] Following a much-publicised on-screen relationship, Houghton married former fellow Big Brother contestant Samuel Preston of The Ordinary Boys in August 2006.

[4] Houghton was born on 21 August 1983 in Wickford, Essex, to her parents Allan and Vivien, and has an older brother, Gregg.

[6] After various friends suggested she would make a good model, Houghton entered a 2001 competition run by Motor Cycle News magazine, and after winning it became a promotions girl.

[6] Wanting to be like her heroine Jordan, she undertook some glamour modelling starting out by having her mother take some topless shots in a local park.

[6] Houghton appeared as a Soccerette model on the Soccer AM show for Sky Sports[7] and also worked for a lookalike agency, portraying Paris Hilton.

9 podium, ahead of Samuel Preston and Maggot, who insisted on placing themselves last (they apparently realised she was not in the music business as they were).

Houghton won the show on 27 January with 56.4%[11] of the public vote, ahead of Michael Barrymore on 22.7%, earning her £25,000 (the celebrities were reportedly paid fees of up to £150,000 each).

During the show, Houghton reformed the fake band Kandy Floss with fellow Ultimate Big Brother housemates Victor Ebuwa and Nadia Almada for a task.

Extracts from the book were read out by Simon Amstell on 14 February 2007 edition of Never Mind the Buzzcocks which caused Preston, who was a guest on the show, to angrily walk off the set.

[12] Houghton was nominated in the Most Popular TV Contender category at the 2006 National Television Awards, but was beaten by Nikki Grahame, herself a former Big Brother contestant.

[citation needed] In June 2010, Houghton fronted a campaign for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, called 'Fight Impotence.

In a later 2008 interview with Piers Morgan, Houghton admitted that Preston had told her one month after the wedding that he had not wanted to marry her.

[6][22] The couple continued to give interviews to various magazines, with Houghton losing weight and colouring her hair brunette to look more like Preston's former fiancée Camille.

"We hope we can always remain friends and still love each other but we both think we put so much pressure on one another to make our marriage work that it has ended up destroying our relationship.