Ten Things You Never Knew About Sam Fox

Samantha Fox's breasts may have adorned a million walls in her Page 3 heyday but she was also one of the world's most successful singers. Her first three singles raced into the top ten in all corners of the globe, while her six albums shifted a whopping 30 million copies between them. Her career took a nosedive in the 1990s but she could always fall back on her iconic status in the Balkans, India and Siberia. With her recent forays into TV (shambolic performance at the Brits in 1989, tipsy ramblings on 2003's The Club) best swept under the carpet, she's now poised to make her small-screen comeback on Channel 4's Celebrity Wife Swap. As she prepares to square up to comedian Freddie Starr on Sunday night, we offer up ten fascinating facts about the nation's most celebrated pin-up.

1. Sam began readying herself for global stardom at an early age. She enrolled in the Anna Scher Theatre School at the age of 5, made her TV debut at 10 and started at the Judi Dench Mountview Theatre School at 11. She also scored her first record deal with her band SFX at the age of 14.

2. Sam has no problem reconciling topless modelling with her strong Christian beliefs. She says: "God gave me my body. I know it has made many people happy. There is no conflict there. I don't and have never promoted pornography. I am doing what God wants me to do."

3. Sam dated Spanish bullfighter Rafi Comino, KISS guitarist Paul Stanley and Cherie-gate conman Peter Foster before re-thinking her romantic allegiances.

4. Sam knew she was attracted to girls after drooling over Bionic Woman Lindsey Wagner at 14 but did not confirm her sexuality until 2003. She said at the time: "People keep trying to say I'm a lesbian. I don't know what I am. All I know is that I'm in love with Myra [Stratton, her manager]."

5. Sam wants to follow in the big-screen footsteps of fellow blondes Sharon Stone and Goldie Hawn. She once said her ideal film role would be "something like Private Benjamin or Basic Instinct. So, if they are filming Basic Instinct 2 - give me a call". A bit late on that one, love!

6. Sam was once asked for her autograph by a Priest at a church service. Tsk tsk.

7. Sam's dad kept her on £200 a week pocket money until she was 26 while he embezzled a cool £1 million from her earnings. He also drove a Mercedes while she pootled around in a Nissan Micra. She says: "Nothing against Nissan Micras, but if I pulled up outside a club, I'd park up the road, just because I knew the photographers would take the p***."

8. Sam spent a year in New York in the early 90s VJing for MTV and making a one-off appearance in sitcom Charles In Charge. However, her TV career didn't exactly take off after she repeatedly referred to Rolf Harris as "Ralph" during one ill-fated interview.

9. Plans for a marble statue of Sam in a Serbian town were scrapped when she “inexplicably” refused to show her breasts during a concert. Oh well, at least that Rocky statue is still going ahead!

10. Sam cites her "intelligence" as the quality she most admires in herself.