Kelly Brook is one of the campmates living rough in the I’m A Celebrity jungle this year, but did you know that’s not even her real name? The former glamour model was born someone else, and there’s a really sad reason why she changed it.
The 46-year-old’s real name is actually called Kelly Anne Parsons. Brook is an entirely made up surname, and she took the new name on when she started her modelling career.
It was Jeany Savage, a Page Three photographer who took some of the first pictures of Kelly when she was only 16, who convinced her to change it because she thought it was ugly.
“I did the first ever shots of her when she was only 16. I just thought ‘My God, this girl is amazing,” Savage told the Daily Star in 2001. “She didn’t want to take her clothes off but I said ‘Come on, you’ve got a great body with natural boobs – show it off’
“I persuaded her to change her name from Parsons which sounded so awful to Brook.”
Credit: ITV
Speaking on her Heart FM radio show, Kelly explained: “My real name is Kelly Parsons and they used to call me Smelly Parsnips because it rhymes.”
She praised Savage a lot, saying the photographer gave her the “confidence to pose naturally” and adding: “Without Jeany I wouldn’t be where I am today. Jeany was always a bundle of fun and treated me like a queen.”
However, she’s never spoken out about how she really feels about being told to change her name. The ex-model has never had the name Brook on her passport or any official documents, so it’s basically just a stage name she’s had for 30 years now.
She shocked everyone when she dropped the revelation on Race Across The World last year, saying: “Kelly Brook doesn’t actually exist, it’s not even a real name, it’s never even been on my passport or anything. In my mind, I’m Mrs Parisi, Jeremy’s wife.”
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Featured image by: ITV
