Amanda Holden lands huge new Netflix dating show for CHEATERS in big money deal worth £500k
BETTE David and Joan Crawford, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine and, in 2024, Amanda Holden and Sharon Osbourne: three truly iconic celebrity catfights.
Two weeks after Mrs Osbourne slammed her BGT rival’s lack of “global celebrity“, Amanda is having the last laugh – landing a global show of her own.
The star is about to be announced as the host of a brand new Netflix dating show – earning £500,000 in the process; an amount, surely, to keep her in handbags for life.
A role she describes as her “dream job”, it will also introduce her to a whole new audience down under, and in the lucrative US where she has spent the past six months house-hunting.
The show, Cheaters: Unfinished Business, is a dating series with a “conceptual twist” – following eight ex-couples reuniting after one party cheated on the other.
Amanda, who first sprung to public attention as a contestant on Blind Date in 1991, is surely the perfect host of the 12 Yard-produced series.
Filming, which begins abroad later this summer – there are still two slots for any interested Sun readers out there – looks set to be a smash.
She says: “Sometimes dreams really do come true. All my career I always wanted to host a show about love and relationships – and this is it.
“A series about second chances and unfinished business. I can’t wait to meet and help these couples work out whether they can forgive and forget. I’m absolutely thrilled to be part of it.”
And as for having the last word in her now infamous online spat with Mrs O, she remains uncharacteristically tight-lipped.
“I would like to think she will be watching from one of her mansions,” she says, from her own Surrey mansion. Or, possibly, her new Cotswolds one.
“Sharon and I have met lots of times and always got on well. I’d like to think we’ll bump into each other again one day soon and have a laugh. I was protecting a friend when asked about the situation. It really was a storm in a tea cup”
For the uninitiated, earlier this month the glamorous mum of two, 53, defended her Britain’s Got Talent boss, Simon Cowell.
It came in the wake of Sharon’s headline-making bitchfest inside the Celebrity Big Brother house, where Sharon and Louis Walsh gleefully sniped about monochrome-loving Simon’s unchanging fashion sense, and claimed he “didn’t know how to keep friends”.
She claimed she wouldn’t work for him again “for all the money in the world”, and suggested the pair were never really friends in the first place.
Loyal Amanda, a staple on BGT alongside the square-haired one for the past 18 years, came out in defence of her pal.
In an apparent dig at Sharon, 71, she said: “I hated seeing certain people in a reality show dissing Simon – he’s the person who’s given them all the chances, given them a lot of money and a lifestyle they probably wouldn’t have had.
“It’s bitter and pathetic. It was like Cinderella with her two sisters in the background – just stabby, stabby, stabby.”
Sharon, herself no shrinking wallflower, took to X in the early hours of the morning to bite back.
The wife of Black Sabbath frontman, Ozzy, launched into a withering response of her own with a two-page diatribe against the former Wild At Heart actress.
Peppered with deliciously nuanced slights – “my darling”, “I think you’re very beautiful” and “no disrespect, but…” her rant rapidly went viral.
She suggested Amanda did not know her “history in the music industry, my achievements, the artists I have worked with, the shows that I’ve produced, and my global celebrity”.
The star of original reality show The Osbournes, added her brand is “known worldwide” and she has been “blessed with an amazing lifestyle throughout my entire life”, with a mansion in Beverley Hills and an English country estate.
“I never discuss money, lifestyle, or positions of power,” she said, whilst discussing all of the above.
“I find it to be classless and crude. However, you’ve now forced my hand to divulge these things to you and I honestly don’t want to seem like I’m bragging, but the truth is my money and success were not due to doing a couple of Simon Cowell talent shows.
“Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed doing them at the time as they were great fun.
“Yes, Simon paid me very well. Probably more than what you’re receiving today, but all of that my darling went on a few handbags.”
Now, in today’s modern, social media-driven world, not many celebrity to-do’s gain traction.
Not this one.
Within minutes of waking up and checking my phone, I saw it was deluged with screenshots of Sharon’s attack.
Louis Walsh, naturally, was the first to text, excitedly asking if I’d seen the news: “I luv it” [sic], he WhatsApped. “But I’m staying out of it,” he added, disappointingly.
Immediately I texted Amanda, whom I’ve known and adored for years, to check she was ok, telling her it would all die down and not to worry.
For some reason, I expected a panicked response; Amanda in meltdown. But no.
“Off for a dog walk,” she replied 48 minutes later. “Silence speaks volumes!”, besides a bicep emoji.
Amanda, after all, is a strong woman – patently she wouldn’t have thrived in this industry were she not.
Later that day she breezily posted a photo of an Aperol Spritz on Instagram. What a champ.
Of course, by then, presumably, she already knew she was about to be announced as the new signing of the planet’s biggest streaming service.
But she determinedly kept her powder dry, letting her work do the talking.
This, of course, is one of showbiz’s hardest working stars. (Now global).
As well as a hugely successful breakfast radio show alongside Jamie Theakston on Heart FM, she is currently filming the third series of popular BBC1 series, Alan and Amanda, with Alan Carr.
She has lucrative brand partnerships with Revolution, Revive College and QVC, and these bikini snaps are a tie-in with her latest Lipsy Spring/Summer ’24 collection.
Says a pal: “Amanda is like a Duracell bunny – she literally never stops.
“When she’s not out running or doing some sort of athletic yoga, she’s networking, filming, partying or being a brilliant mum to her two daughters – not necessarily in that order.
“She’s also a fearless negotiator, and an underrated businesswoman. This whole thing with Sharon Osbourne didn’t bother her one bit – she’s fiercely loyal to her mates, and Simon [Cowell] has been excellent to her.
“She is also well aware that you never bite the hand that feeds you.”
For the past 15 years, Amanda has been married to successful UK agent Chris Hughes – their best man was former F1 driver, David Coulthard.
The couple have two children, Lexie and Hollie.
Lexie, 18, is about to go to university and was recently signed as a model to Kate Moss‘s former agency, Storm.
Amanda, previously married to Les Dennis, appeared alongside Phillip Schofield on This Morning, covering for Holly Willoughby, but the pair weren’t exactly bosom buddies.
And since 2007, she has been a judge on BGT which, this year, has been Britian’s most watched terrestrial show.
Last night a pal added: “This is a massively exciting new chapter for Amanda, and she reckons the best is yet to come.”
Presumably she can’t wait to show off her new handbag, either.
