She shot to fame in 2007 after appearing on Big Brother and leaving a trail of controversy in her wake. Now 17 years later, you may struggle to recognise her.
Emily Valentine, who was known as Emily Parr on the hit UK show, made her TV debut when she was a 19-year-old drama student from Bristol. Now 36, she’s swapped her life of reality TV for a life of social media fame.
With over 50,000 followers on Instagram alone, Emily has built up a lifestyle-focused community, with her posts covering style, wellbeing, and entrepreneurial trends.
But while her perfectly curated feed is impressive, it’s her new look proving just how far she has come since her days on the show.
When appearing on Big Brother, Emily was no stranger to a casual yet eye-catching look. Some of her most memorable outfits included a blue shirt and skinny jeans combo and an unmissable yellow bodycon dress.
As for her hair and makeup, the then-cigarette smoker usually wore her blonde hair in a messy bun on top of her head, while her makeup stayed natural and minimal.
In recent years the social media influencer has adopted a clean-cut aesthetic.
A quick look at Emily’s Instagram page paints an unrecognisable picture from her earlier years, with pictures including a slicked-back bun and clean-girl makeup look.
One of her recent videos even includes a caption about her love for an ‘old money, long bob’ style for her hair, admitting that the ‘hair cut giving me life once again’.
Her social media posts also revealed the star is getting married soon, with much of her content focusing on bridal make-up, bachelorette outfit inspiration and a list of bridal beauty products she recommends.
Emily starred in the eighth season of Big Brother, which was won by Brian Belo, and became a favourite of some fans until her stint came to a swift end after she spoke to her roomie, Charley Uchea, in the garden and made a racist comment.
The team of the then-Channel 4, now ITV-produced show, quickly removed Emily from the Big Brother house in the early hours of the morning, and her exit prompted the teen to offer a heartfelt apology.
‘There’s no amount of words that can cover how sorry and how stupid I’ve been,’ she said in a statement at the time.
‘But we’ve all got to move on now, and all I ask from anyone reading this is that they understand what really happened and accept my apology.’
She also spoke with OK! magazine in 2021 about the incident, admitting it is a period in her life she ‘tries not to revisit’.
‘The media noise and intrusion was bad, but what was worse and lasted for a while was the deep shame I felt about what I had said.
‘The only way I’ve found I could move forward from my mistake was to educate myself and develop a much better understanding of what these racial slurs mean and why they are so awful.
‘As well as having a better understanding of racism and how it manifests in our society today.’
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