Nineties icons who have very different jobs now, including PC Penny Lancaster & model who is a church teacher
LOOSE Women host and former lingerie model Penny Lancaster has started her new job as a special constable for the City of London police.
But PC Penny, 50, isn’t the only nineties pin-up icon to have had a completely different career change later in life.
Model Penny, who married singer Rod Stewart, 76, in 2007, started her police training after appearing on Channel 4’s 2019 series Famous and Fighting Crime, in which celebrities joined police officers on patrol.
She recently revealed that she helped to save the life of a suicidal woman – and was also recently seen stopping a man from peeing in the street while on duty.
The beauty said she has drawn on her experience as a mum to their boys 15-year-old Alastair and 10-year-old Aiden while working in her police role, and called her new line of work “rewarding.”
Here are the other nineties stars who have opted for new careers later on….
Mandy Smith – Holy Communion teacher
A former singer and model in her heyday, Mandy, 50, married former Spurs hardman Pat Van Den Hauwe in 1993.
It didn’t last long, it was just two years before they parted ways.
Before that, self-confessed wild-child Mandy dated former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman when she was just 13-years-old.
She now lives in Manchester, is teetotal and is a church-goer teaching youngsters how to prepare for their first Holy Communion.
Ulrika Jonsson – columnist
There’s not much that Ulrika Jonsson hasn’t done.
Going from a morning TV weather girl to a household name, having multiple marriages — and divorces — four children, one born with a heart defect, and high-profile flings . . . She has even taught Boris Johnson to dance at Christmas parties.
Now she shares her wealth of knowledge and sassy, strong opinions with Sun readers in her weekly column.
Speaking from her home in Oxfordshire, Ulrika said last year: “It’s true that I really have lived quite a life already . . . but there’s plenty more to come.
“I’m excited about my future. My kids are older, I’m single and very ready to mingle.”
Patsy Palmer – Wellness guru
Patsy Palmer is best known for starring in EastEnders as Bianca Jackson.
She now lives in LA and has launched her new wellness page on Instagram, Good and Proper.
The soap star, 49, appears to have taken a leaf out of lifestyle guru Gwyneth Paltrow’s book with her page of inspiration quotes and life tips.
Carla Bruni
At the age of 19, Bruni signed with City Models and eventually modelled for Guess jeans, and worked with designers, Christian Dior, Givenchy and Karl Lagerfield.
Bruni’s porcelain skin, slender frame and feline gaze helped make her one of the world’s most successful models in the 1990s.
By this time, she was among the 20 highest paid fashion models in the world, earning $7.5million at her peak.
She has been linked to a string of famous men, including British musicians Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, and even the former US President, Donald Trump.
Bruni met newly-divorced Nicholas Sarkozy in November 2007 at a dinner party, before marrying him four months later. They share a daughter Giulia, nine.
From 2008 to 2012, Bruni was the First Lady of France serving alongside her President husband.
Freddie Prinze Jr
Back in the ‘90s, you couldn’t watch a teen movie without seeing Freddie Prinze Jr’s handsome face.
The teen heartthrob delighted many fans when he went on to marry Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Now the actor has shown he also has talents in the kitchen, and is a chef who has released his own cookbook, Back to the Kitchen.
Karyn Parsons
You may remember Karyn best for her role as pampered princess Hilary Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
Karyn has now dedicated her life to philanthropic endeavors.
She runs the Sweet Blackberry Foundation, which aims to tell the stories of lesser-known African American heroes to children.
Hollyoaks Adam Ricketts
Adam, 43, is basically soap royalty having first found fame playing Nick Tilsley in Coronation Street back in the ’90s.
He went on to star as Kyle Kelly in Hollyoaks, but after his final appearance in June 2020 he turned his attention to craft beer and posh gins.
The actor and his GMB correspondent wife Katy Fawcett bought their own shop in Cheshire at the end of 2019, and ran takeaway and delivery services during lockdown.