Jodie Marsh Biography

Summary

"Jodie Louisa Marsh", (born 23 December 1978) is an English softcore model, best known for appearing topless in numerous publications and photographs and her high profile feuds with numerous other celebrities.

Early life

Marsh was born in Brentwood, Essex in England to a working class family, her father John Marsh running his own scaffolding business. She has one younger brother, Jordan. In her autobiography "Keeping It Real" published in 2005, Marsh jokingly mentions that it is ironic that her brother shares his name with successful celebrity and glamour model Jordan with whom she has had a long-running feud.

As the result of a hockey accident in her childhood, Marsh's nose was disfigured. During her teenage years at Brentwood School, a public school (where she attended with Frank Lampard) this made her, she claims, the target of bullying which became so traumatic that she considered suicide . She underwent plastic surgery at the age of 15..

Some years later, Jodie Marsh entered the lap dance and stripping industry at the Stringfellow's nightclub. She also attempted to obtain work as a Page 3 girl, but was at first rejected., and has since framed the rejection letter.

Her big break came in January 2003 when she was featured in the ITV documentary "Essex Wives".

Rivalry with other celebrities

Marsh is well known for her heated feuds with other glamour models and celebrities. Rival glamour-model Jordan (Katie Price) has described her nose as resembling 'a builder's elbow' and likened her breasts to a 'spaniel's ears'. Marsh retorted that Jordan's nose was as 'hooked as a witch's'.

In January 2006 Jodie took part in Celebrity Big Brother. When fellow contestant Chantelle Houghton got married to Preston, Jodie took an opportunity to draw criticism about their marriage as a publicity stunt. Ironically Jodie agreed to do this herself for a TV show with MTV in 2007, 'Totally Jodie Marsh - Who'll take her up the Aisle?' drawing criticism from far and wide.

During interviews, journalists commonly mention Jordan in a way to spice their rivalry between the two. As response, Marsh consistently draws comparison between herself and Jordan stating what she can and what Jordan can't do and why she is better than her. During episode 4 of Totally Jodie Marsh, an interviewer for Star Magazine started that comparison. Her reply was other than that they are models and used to date the same men, Jordan doesn't do charity work, ride a motorbike, take part in extreme sports, care very much about animals, isn't a vegetarian, hasn't an IQ of 138, and didn't write her own autobiography, while Marsh states she does them all, despite the fact Jordan counts horse riding as a hobby.

Marsh often draws comparison with minor celebrities such as Abi Titmuss and Rebecca Loos in a way to make them appear inferior even during interviews, branding them as 'famous for nothing' celebrities.

Ironically, Jodie boasts on her blog about blagging a free biker jacket, looking sexy in motorcycle leathers and having a PETA banner on her website proclaiming "Animals are not ours to wear" and also has leather seats in her car.

Relationships and sex life

It has been widely reported in the British tabloid newspapers that Marsh has had a string of relationships with other tabloid stars including Natasha Hamilton's ex Fran Cosgrave, son of George Best Calum Best, Westlife member Kian Egan, short-lived Corrie actor Scott Wright, and ex-Blazin' Squad singer and "Celebrity Big Brother 2005" runner-up Kenzie..

In December 2006, Marsh announced her engagement to Brentwood DJ David Doyle, after a fairytale romance of eleven days . Eschewing the traditional engagement ring, Marsh instead opted to have Doyle's full name tattooed about her hand and the couple soon appeared together in OK! magazine announcing their plan to marry in a fetish ceremony in a dungeon.

The relationship ended some time between late December and mid January with Doyle blaming Marsh's constant drinking and poor personal hygiene for the break-up. Jodie claimed that Doyle had been unfaithful. Marsh has since had her tattoo transformed into a tribal band with rosary beads.

Prior to this, Marsh boasted of having a sexual relationship with two men, which she describes as a 'threesome relationship' (... more) . This ended when their respective girlfriends found out, though Marsh claims to have enjoyed the experience, and would prefer to be with five men next time (... more) .

In May 2007 a website was launched (Marry Me Jodie Marsh) with the teaser 'I'm getting married this September... Only problem is that I don't have a man!' Men were invited to submit an application for a series of open auditions for the chance to marry Marsh that September. The search and subsequent wedding were filmed for MTV.

Marsh married Jordan's former boyfriend Matt Peacock on 1 September 2007 at Sugar Hut, a nightclub in Essex. A second ceremony in her mum's back garden was shown on MTV on 2 September 2007. Believing that it would bring lots of paparazzi she hired forty security guards but only one pap turned up, the only celebrities to turn up were Syd Little and Linsey Dawn McKenzie.

In the final episode of the TV show, MTV executives confronted Marsh and Matt with taped footage of Matt at his audition saying that he and Jodie had already been going out for months and that they had been living together for three months contrary to the whole basis of the show. After the MTV executives left the room, Matt said to Jodie that she had lied and told him that they already knew. MTV decided to proceed with the show despite this development. However, one member of Jodie's staff refused to attend the wedding on the basis that he thought it a sham given Jodie and Matt had lied about their relationship. (... more) Following the wedding, Marsh insulted her PA staff on her blog by claiming they were employees of MTV. (... more) Apparently Marsh staged the wedding so she could claim freebies and even sold her wedding photos and story to OK magazine. Everything was paid for by sponsors who were mislead into thinking that her wedding was genuine. (... more)

Television and film appearances

She has taken part in many reality Television shows, including "Trust Me I'm A Holiday Rep" (with other celebs such as Syd Little), Channel 4's "The Games" , E4's "Fool around...with Jodie Marsh" on two occasions, as a house guest in the short lived Five series "Back to Reality", Sky One's "Celebrity Penthouse" and the one off documentary "Jodie Marsh: Close up".

In 2004, Marsh appeared as a contestant on a celebrity edition of The Weakest Link.

In autumn 2006 she appeared in a "It's Me or the Dog" celebrity special where it was revealed she owned six dogs but left four of them with her parents to look after.

Her most recent television appearances to date include a stint on "The All Star Talent Show" where she performed a ballroom dance. She won her heat, gaining a place in the final where she was placed fourth out of six in a public vote. In November 2006 she appeared on "Celebrity Scissorhands".

She has played herself on two occasions in the series "A Bear's Tail", and has a small role in the independent British film "Are You Ready for Love?" (2006).

Marsh has made appearances in the music videos 'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?' as part of the Girls of FHM and 'When You Wasn't Famous' by The Streets.

Marsh began presenting her own television series, "Get A Life" for Living TV which commenced 1 March 2007. It was cancelled after two episodes, due to poor viewing figures.

It was subsequently announced Jodie would have her own MTV reality TV show titled "Totally Jodie Marsh: Who'll Take Her Up the Aisle?" in which she searches for a husband.

Celebrity Big Brother

In January 2006, she appeared on "Celebrity Big Brother" in the UK. She clashed with a number of other housemates, most notably Pete Burns, Michael Barrymore and George Galloway who allegedly grew tired of her endless boasting of sexual experiences, and constant wannabe-victim mentality. She appeared, however, to establish a friendship with fellow housemate Chantelle Houghton. This friendship did not continued when the show finished. On Friday 13 January, Marsh was first to be voted out of the Big Brother house - with 8 out of 10 possible nominations (the highest ever margin) from her fellow housemates, but only 41% of the public vote.

She cried during her post-eviction interview with Davina McCall describing the experience as 'horrific' and her housemates as 'vile jealous bullies'.

Writing

Marsh wrote a weekly column for celebrity gossip mag Sneak magazine until its closure in August 2006 and was previously Zoo Weekly magazine's 'Sexpert', advising men on sex related issues. Her choice as an agony aunt caused some concern among established professionals.

Her website includes an online blog, which she claims to updates almost daily and which has developed a cult following for the unintentional humour it contains. The blog has caused its fair share of controversy too, in particular with the charity BeatBullying (whom she represented).

She has also written her autobiography entitled "Keeping It Real" which hit the top ten sales chart in the UK.

Other controversy

In 2004, Jodie Marsh complained to the owners of the website Digital Spy, threatening libel action if a thread in their forum dedicated to her was not removed. They complied, though a number of 'anti-fan' threads sprung up in the originals' place.

Jodie Marsh once sold a story to the Sunday tabloid newspaper 'The News of the World' citing that she had enjoyed a sexual liaison with Frank Lampard. She was later forced to retract this story and make a formal apology to Mr Lampard and his family.

On 24 March 2006, the Liberal Democrats Education Spokesman Phil Willis questioned Schools Minister Jacqui Smith as to whether Marsh should be permitted access to schools in promoting her BeatBullying work, branding her blog as 'the language of an appalling bully'. Smith responded that it was a decision in the hands of individual headteachers. The BeatBullying website now no longer lists Jodie Marsh as a supporter.

Marsh's response to Willis' comments was that he was 'just a sad, past-it old wannabe trying to get famous off my back'. Willis later told the Daily Mail that: (... more) 'I just think we are descending really to the lowest common denominator when we are actually putting people on a pedestal like Jodie Marsh to send into our schools. I think we could find better role models.'

On 11 August 2006, Marsh was booed by spectators at the annual Jersey Battle of Flowers Parade where she was a celebrity guest. The combined fee for Marsh and the parade's other celebrity guest, Andy Abraham, was estimated as £20,000 and it has been suggested that it was this expense and the quality of the celebrity it bought that contributed to the negative reception.

On 28 March 2007, she complained to the host of the site (www.jodiemush.co.uk) , again threatening legal action but this time over copyright infringement rather than libel. The site was temporarily pulled.

On 16 May 2007, she stood atop a giant wedding cake in Leicester Square in London, dressed in a white tutu, with two white belts covering her nipples and carrying a bridal bouquet. She told reporters she was looking for a man to marry. She was interviewed by journalist Jody Thompson. Disagreeing with Thompson, Marsh said of her, on camera, 'I actually wanted to punch her in the face. Lesbian, blatantly! That short hair! And butch, looks like a man . . . She was a bitch from hell, she was a complete cow.' - much to a fury of gay rights groups. The clip was broadcast on MTV.

On 11th October 2007 it was confirmed by Jo Leigh of SEM plc that they had decided to terminate their representation of Marsh, after it came to light she was notably missing from their list of clients on their website.

Rankings

In 2006, Marsh was ranked the UK's 8th richest Celebrity chav with a fortune of £2million.

Marsh was been voted by readers of Daily Star as Britain's 3rd most hated woman, behind Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, and beating the likes of Maxine Carr.