Former glamour model Keeley Hazell brings her memoir to the Edinburgh fringe
Keeley Hazell, who rose to fame as a Page 3 model in the mid-2000s, is now bringing her story to the Edinburgh fringe in a theatre/comedy show based on her 2025 book, Everyone’s Seen My Tits: Stories and Reflections from an Unlikely Feminist. The show, which runs at Pleasance Courtyard from 5 to 29 August, explores her experiences with trauma, exploitation, and the hollowness of the high life, as well as her transition to acting and writing on the hit series Ted Lasso.
Hazell, born in Lewisham, London, left modelling in her early 20s and moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. She describes the writing process as a “release” and says it allowed her to “give myself a voice” for a period when she felt voiceless. The show makes her think of “the image of Russian dolls – I’m performing as me, but then I’m also performing as a version of me.”
Modelling career and exploitation
Hazell’s 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 sent photos to several addresses, one of which was for the Daily Star’s “beach babe” competition. She won, and a few months later entered the Sun’s “Page 3 idol” competition. “I won that too, and that was the start of my career,” she recalls.
Modelling was a stark contrast to her life on a council estate. “I went from growing up there to owning a luxury apartment overlooking the Thames.” However, she felt like a “canvas” for photographers and says she was “so young, there was so much exploitation, I was not emotionally or mentally prepared for it.” Safeguarding was basically nonexistent, she adds. “There was so little protection for women entering that industry. I had no idea about the things I needed in place, and my family didn’t either.”
Multiple identities and shame
Hazell remembers “presenting differently” to the Keeley Hazell people saw on magazine covers, “in vintage clothes and very grungey.” 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. “I’d be like, ‘Are you saying I look like a Page 3 model?’ And it was a really interesting experiment because they’d often be like, ‘No, no, you’re way more classy than that.’ It was weird because they were talking about me but I also felt separate from it.”
Looking back, Hazell almost can’t believe Page 3 was real. “It was just a wild thing to grow up with … those images were so readily available in newspapers and in newsagents.” She recalls 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 “not having more control” over things. “A lot of the time I was just numb. I’d drink a lot and tell myself to enjoy the party.”
Therapy and dealing with trauma
Therapy has helped Hazell enormously, particularly when it came to dealing with the fallout from a sex tape sold to the Sunday Sport. It was “terrifying” to write about the experience and “in a way relive it,” she says. “So many women experience some aspect of sexual violation and abuse in any realm, the shame for me needed to be ridded.”
Hazell now works as a staff writer on Ted Lasso, having auditioned for the role of Keeley Jones, a character inspired by her. She didn’t get the part but landed a recurring role and joined the writing team. Of her solo show, she says it will be funny despite the heavy topics. “Trauma and humour are intertwined … even within the spiralling and the PTSD of it all, it should be a humorous retelling.” She feels empowered by having complete autonomy over the Keeley Hazell people see and hear from. “It is incredibly powerful to have a voice.”
