Keeley Hazell, once known as one of Britain’s most famous glamour models, is now 38 and sitting in a café in London, reflecting on a life that has been anything but ordinary.
She has been on more than two dozen FHM covers, sold tens of thousands of calendars, starred in films and television, and even worked as a screenwriter on the Emmy-winning series Ted Lasso.
Now, she has put her story into a memoir titled Everyone’s Seen My Tits, due for release on Tuesday.
But long before Hollywood, red carpets, and celebrity friends, her journey began with a shaky hand holding an envelope at a postbox in Southeast London.
The Postbox That Changed Everything
Not long after turning 18, Keeley dropped a letter into the post that would alter the course of her life.
Inside were topless photos of herself, taken with a disposable camera, as her entry to The Sun’s Page 3 competition.
She almost pulled the envelope back out. Fear, embarrassment, and excitement all tangled together in her stomach.
Mostly, she remembers thinking this might be her only shot to change the life she was born into—a life marked by poverty and violence at home.
Against the odds, she won. And with that, Keeley Hazell’s name became known nationwide.
A Tough Childhood
Keeley grew up in Catford, South London, as the middle of three sisters.
Her mum was a dinner lady, her dad a window fitter.
Home life was chaotic.
Her father, who spent time in prison, often lashed out violently at her mother and the children.
She recalls beatings with whatever was within reach—shoes, belts, even the metal part of a hoover.
That background gave her a deep hunger to escape.
“I don’t remember myself without ambition,” she admits.
That ambition, even when fueled by desperation, became her lifeline.
Life on Page 3
As a contracted Page 3 girl, Keeley had two shoots a month.
The job demanded a strange balance of playfulness and detachment.
She remembers having to hold freezing Coca-Cola bottles to her chest for a shoot or hearing about a bizarre idea that involved topless women dressed as pigeons.
The pay wasn’t extraordinary at first—a monthly retainer of £1,000 plus fees per shoot—but the exposure led to lucrative deals with magazines like Zoo and Nuts, where she could earn tens of thousands.
Keeley was shrewd with her money: her first purchase was a computer so she could study psychology, law, and real estate at evening classes. Soon after, she invested in London property.
The Scandal That Shattered Her
At just 20, Keeley faced a devastating betrayal.
After a breakup, her ex-boyfriend broke into her flat, stole her belongings, and leaked a sex tape to the press.
The humiliation was splashed across tabloids, leaving her broken.
She struggled with her mental health, withdrew from intimacy, and found it nearly impossible to continue in glamour modelling.
Eventually, she walked away from that world.
Reinventing Herself in America
While many former Page 3 models leaned into reality TV or tried to marry wealthy men, Keeley wanted a different path.
In 2009, she took a leap of faith and moved to Los Angeles. There, she studied acting, secured visas, and eventually became a US citizen.
Her persistence paid off: she landed roles in indie films, appeared on TV shows, and built a network of high-profile friends.
Eventually, her path crossed with Jason Sudeikis, leading her into the world of Ted Lasso.
She didn’t get the lead role loosely based on her own life, but she did appear in the show and later worked in the writers’ room.
Writing It All Down
When her time with Ted Lasso ended, Keeley turned her attention to something more personal: telling her own story.
Her memoir is brutally honest, weaving together memories of a violent childhood, the highs and lows of glamour modelling, the pain of public humiliation, and her transformation into an actress and writer in the US.
She’s candid about regrets, too.
Looking back at her Page 3 days, she says, “I definitely have had moments. But would I still do it? Would I still put the letter in the postbox? I don’t know. I go back and forth.”
Looking Ahead
Keeley lives in Manhattan now, working on new scripts and exploring the possibility of adapting her memoir for the screen.
But she also hints at something unexpected: studying at Yale.
She’s spoken with a professor there about enrolling, maybe in English or philosophy.
It’s a striking idea—Keeley Hazell, the girl who once mailed off topless photos to escape her childhood, sitting in Ivy League lecture halls among future leaders and scholars.
The Story in Full
Keeley once asked what her story really was.
It isn’t just about Page 3 or fame, nor is it only about scandal or Hollywood.
It’s about ambition: the blessing and curse that pushed her to leave behind a life she didn’t want, to rebuild after devastation, and to keep chasing new horizons.
From Catford to Page 3, from Hollywood to the possibility of Yale—that’s Keeley Hazell’s story, and she’s still writing it.
