Holly Valance from soap life, pop career to 'tricky' marriage as she backs Nigel Farage

Holly Valance has shared her support for Nigel Farage who this week announced that he was taking over as leader of the Reform UK party, ahead of the general election next month. Holly, 41, who rose to fame in the soap Neighbours before her pop stardom, is no stranger to sharing her political views and last night claimed she encouraged the former UKIP leader to return to frontline politics before his shock U-turn.

Speaking to GB News political editor Christopher Hope on Monday at the Reform press conference, the Kiss Kiss hitmaker said she may have played a part in Farage’s decision to stand, as she had "been in his ear” during the early stages of the election campaign.

“I have been whispering in his ear for a long time”, she shared. “He is the face of Reform. Richard [Tice] has done a great job and they are a great team. Hopefully now we will be stronger and we will see what we can do at this next election. I’m a paid up member.”

Holly went on to say that Nigel's return to frontline was the "right move" and "exactly what we all wanted". While keen to support him however, the Kiss Kiss singer insisted she wouldn't be the best person to go knocking on doors to get people behind him, in a quip about her relevance. She added: “Does anyone want to see me knocking on their doors anymore? Maybe 20 years ago."

The mother-of-two, who is married to businessman and friend of Farage Nick Candy, was seemingly referring to one of the most memorable times of her career in which she played Felicity Scully in the Australian soap Neighbours. The actress portrayed the character for three years from 1999 before she moved on to kickstart her pop career.

Holly released her first album Footprints back in 2002, which featured her number one hit Kiss Kiss.

The following year, she released her second album State of Mind, but it didn't perform as well.

Holly turned her back on music shortly after its release and returned to her roots as an actress.

From then on, she starred as Nika Volek in Prison Break, a role which she continued to portray in the show's second season.

Additionally, Holly has starred in many other on-screen roles including; DOA: Dead or Alive, Pledge This!, Taken, and Kambakkht Ishq.

Nowadays, she lives a more quieter life as a mum to her and Nick's two daughters Luka and Nova, but is regularly seen with her spouse at political events.

Speaking on the Made by Mammas podcast in 2019, the singer opened up about the "tricky" reality of being married to a billionaire and how his work had even disrupted their wedding day back in 2012.

Holly shared: "He worked on Christmas Day and even the day we practised our vows with the priest he took a call in the middle of it.

"He was like, 'Got to take this sorry guys!' I was like, 'We’re at the altar practicing our vows!' So that’s who I married, I know that."

Earlier this year, the singer admitted she'd back Jacob Rees-Mogg for prime minister and went on to call ‘leftie’ ideas “c**p”.

Following Liz Truss's Popular Conservatism movement, she said the former Conservative leader was "really, really interesting to listen to" adding: "Jacob for PM."

She continued: "I would say that everyone starts as a leftie and then wakes up at some point after you start either making money, working, trying to run a business, trying to buy a home, and then realise what c**p ideas they all are, and then you go to the right."

Her property tycoon spouse, who is also a Conservative Party donor, has since signaled that he'd back a change of government to Labour as he praised Keir Starmer.

Speaking on the Bloomberg's In The City podcast in February, he said while he was "naturally a Tory", he believes the Labour leader is a "decent man with good values and good morals".

He added: "I think people are less worried this time because Keir Starmer is not Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer and his team seem to be engaging with business."