{"id":715710,"date":"2026-07-28T16:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T16:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/715710\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T16:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T16:48:08","slug":"topless-modelling-never-aligned-with-me-inside-everyones-seen-my-tits-the-play-by-a-former-page-3-model-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/715710\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Topless modelling never aligned with me\u2019: inside Everyone\u2019s Seen My Tits, the play by a former page 3 model | Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a time in the mid-2000s when it felt as though \u201ceveryone\u201d had seen her topless, says Keeley Hazell. Page 3 was a staple of the tabloid press<\/a>, lads\u2019 mags were booming and she was one of the country\u2019s most recognisable glamour models. \u201cThere was excitement, but also a lot of shame and embarrassment,\u201d the softly spoken Hazell reflects. \u201cTopless modelling never really aligned with me as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hazell, who was born in Lewisham, London, left modelling in her early 20s and moved to LA to become an actor. But the emotional impact of her time in the industry has stayed with her, partly inspiring her 2025 book Everyone\u2019s Seen My Tits: Stories and Reflections from an Unlikely Feminist<\/a>. She describes the writing process as a \u201crelease\u201d when we meet in London, where she has been preparing for an Edinburgh fringe theatre\/comedy show based on the book. \u201cI was able to give myself a voice,\u201d she says, for \u201ca period where I felt voiceless\u201d.<\/p>\n

double quotation markI\u2019d drink a lot and tell myself to enjoy the party<\/p>\n

The show makes her think \u201cof the image of Russian dolls \u2013 I\u2019m performing as me, but then I\u2019m also performing as a version of me\u201d. This sense of having multiple identities is nothing new for her. She remembers \u201cpresenting differently\u201d to the Keeley Hazell people saw on magazine covers, \u201cin vintage clothes and very grungey\u201d. So much so that she was rarely recognised in the street, even at the height of her fame. When asked if she was a Page 3 model, she would deny it. \u201cI\u2019d be like, \u2018Are you saying I look like a Page 3 model?\u2019 And it was a really interesting experiment because they\u2019d often be like, \u2018No, no, you\u2019re way more classy than that.\u2019 It was weird because they were talking about me but I also felt separate from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hazell\u2019s introduction to glamour modelling was fast and unexpected. At 16, she left school and started working in a hair salon, where a colleague encouraged her to apply to become a model. She had some photos taken and sent them off to \u201ca bunch of addresses\u201d given to her \u2013 one of which, unbeknown to Hazell, was the Daily Star\u2019s \u201cbeach babe\u201d competition. She won, and a few months later entered the Sun\u2019s \u201cPage 3 idol\u201d competition. \u201cI won that too, and that was the start of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modelling was very different to her life at home on a council estate. \u201cI went from growing up there to owning a luxury apartment overlooking the Thames.\u201d Hazell was a \u201ccanvas\u201d, and she knew she could be made up to fit a photographer\u2019s image. \u201cI was so young, there was so much exploitation, I was not emotionally or mentally prepared for it.\u201d Safeguarding, she says, was basically nonexistent. \u201cThere was so little protection for women entering that industry. I had no idea about the things I needed in place, and my family didn\u2019t either.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Page 3 was a wild thing to grow up with\u2019 \u2026 Hazell. Photograph: Alicia Canter\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Looking back, Hazell almost can\u2019t believe Page 3 was real. \u201cIt was just a wild thing to grow up with \u2026 those images were so readily available in newspapers and in newsagents.\u201d There are times when she thinks of those days fondly; she was earning more money than she thought possible and got to travel the world. But she regrets \u201cnot having more control\u201d over things. \u201cA lot of the time I was just numb. I\u2019d drink a lot and tell myself to enjoy the party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, she gives carefully considered answers, with the air of someone who has had the time and space to process it all. Therapy has helped enormously, she tells me, particularly when it came to dealing with the fallout from a sex tape sold to the Sunday Sport. It was \u201cterrifying\u201d to write about the experience and \u201cin a way relive it\u201d Hazell says. \u201cSo many women experience some aspect of sexual violation and abuse in any realm, the shame for me needed to be ridded.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Edinburgh fringe show is the latest chapter in that process. It begins in 2019 with her auditioning to play Keeley Jones, a character inspired by her, in Ted Lasso. She didn\u2019t get the part but she did land a recurring role in the series and serves as a staff writer. Hazell can\u2019t tell me much more about her solo show\u2019s structure \u2013 she\u2019s still in the writing process. \u201cRight now I\u2019m just staring at a laptop, ordering food and thinking, this is difficult,\u201d she says with a laugh. She is certain, though, that it will be funny. \u201cTrauma and humour are intertwined \u2026 even within the spiralling and the PTSD of it all, it should be a humorous retelling.\u201d And it feels freeing to have, at last, complete autonomy over the Keeley Hazell people see and hear from. \u201cIt is incredibly powerful to have a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a time in the mid-2000s when it felt as though \u201ceveryone\u201d had seen her topless, says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-715710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}