Nicola Formby
Nicola Elizabeth Formby (born 22 April 1965) is a South African journalist, company director and food consultant, and a former model and actress.
Nicola Formby | |
|---|---|
| Born | Nicola Elizabeth Formby 22 April 1965 South Africa |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, food consultant |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Partner | |
| Children | 2 |
Life and career
Born in South Africa in 1965,[1] Formby has recalled that while she was growing up there "dogs lived in kennels outside and never ever came into the house with their muddy paws".[2] She came to England and was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire. In her teens, David Bailey photographed her for a magazine cover and said she reminded him of Julie Christie. This led to modelling work for Clairol and Wella and to TV commercials in Germany.[3]
From modelling, Formby went on to appear in the Ben Elton comedy The Man from Auntie (1990). She played the leading role of Diana, Princess of Wales, in the three-hour television movie The Women of Windsor (1992), about the lives of Diana and Sarah Ferguson.[4][5] She also appeared in the television series Bugs and The All New Alexei Sayle Show (1995). Moving into journalism, Formby became editor-at-large of Tatler[6] and is also a food consultant for Pret a Manger and Itsu.[7]
Personal life
From 1995 until his death in 2016, Formby was the partner of A. A. Gill, author and restaurant critic of The Sunday Times, who left his wife Amber Rudd for her and in his columns called her "The Blonde".[6][3][8] They had twins together, a boy and a girl, born in 2007.[9] Michael Bywater wrote of them "He and Nicola Formby are a Power Couple, which we hate, don't we?"[6]
A feud between Gill and Piers Morgan may have originated when Morgan described Formby as a "sex kitten on whom the mists of time had taken their toll"[10] and claimed she had shown him "porn shots" of herself. Gill said Morgan had made this up and called him a "pretty objectionable self-publicist".[11]
References
- ^ George Parker, "Amber Rudd: 'I wanted to take back control — and I did'", Financial Times, 1 February 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2022. (subscription required)
- ^ Christa D'Souza, "Barking mad", The Sunday Times, Sunday 1 October 2006, accessed 6 March 2021 (subscription required)
- ^ a b Nicola Formby (12 August 2009). "My brunette blunder – 'The Blonde' loses her bottle". Evening Standard. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- ^ New York Magazine, 26 October 1992, p. 133
- ^ Prouty, Variety Television Reviews 1991–92, p. 444
- ^ a b c Lynn Barber, "The secret diary of Adrian Gill, aged 45", The Observer, 6 January 2004
- ^ Nicola Formby profile, Tatler, undated, accessed 6 March 2021
- ^ A. A. Gill, "Tugga", The Times, 21 August 2005, accessed 5 March 2021
- ^ Lynn Barber, "Let him eat cake", The Observer, 25 May 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
- ^ Emily Herbert, Piers Morgan – The Biography (Kings Road Publishing, 2012), p. 117
- ^ John Costello, "Morgan hits pay dirt after years of digging for trash", Irish Independent at independent.ie, 22 June 2010, accessed 6 March 2021