Inside Jodie Marsh’s drastic career changes – from Page 3 model to Big Brother star, superfit bodybuilder & farmer girl
SHE’s known for her no holds barred career - but Jodie Marsh’s latest move has shocked us all.
The former lads’ mags model, 44, has opened an animal sanctuary, Fripp’s Farm, and now says she has no time for working out while she looks after her 350 creatures.
She told The Sun: "You might recognise me as someone that used to be glamorous, sexy, a bodybuilder and everything else, but now I'm just a farm girl and I look a mess."
She added: “I'm doing what I always should have been doing, 100 per cent.”
And Jodie certainly has had quite the career - starting out in strip clubs in 2002 with some very varied gigs along the way.
From law to laps
After leaving school, swot Jodie briefly considered becoming a lawyer but instead went down a different route.
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She told GB News: "I went to the best private school ever and then I just became a lap dancer.
“I used to go to Stringfellows on a night out and I was sitting there one night and somebody said ‘why do you keep coming here for a night out, you should work here.’”
She said at her peak she was making £10,000 a week with stripping and lap dancing.
But it wasn’t until Jodie appeared on reality show Essex Wives that she started modelling for lads’ mags and even The Sun’s Page 3.
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Accomplished writer
As one of Britain’s top glamour model’s Jodie was soon roped in to being agony aunt for now defunct mag Zoo Weekly in 2005.
However, despite counting Kenzie from Blazin Squad and Fran Cosgrave as boyfriends, the model incurred the wrath of qualified professionals.
But Jodie clapped back: "I haven't exactly got a degree in psychology but I just love sex, don't I?"
With her writing on a roll, Jodie published her first autobiography Keeping It Real, where she opened up about childhood bullying, her feud with Katie Price and having a nose job.
Celeb Big Brother feud
Jodie appeared on arguably the most iconic series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2006.
She made friends with non-celeb Chantelle Houghton who posed as a pop star and eventually won the series.
She caused a public debate when Pete Burns, George Galloway and Michael Barrymore were accused of bullying her.
She later tweeted of Barrymore: "I thought he was going to hit me at one point.
"I was cowering on the bed while he stood above me and raised his fists in my face.
"They wouldn’t allow that these days but no one even came to my rescue. I was terrified of him. I had nightmares for months after that show."
Reality star regrets
Her reality TV follow up was bonkers MTV dating show Totally Jodie Marsh: Who'll Take Her Up the Aisle? In 2007.
The show was launched with a website which Jodie teased: "I'm getting married this September... Only problem is that I don't have a man!"
She eventually picked Katie Price’s ex Matt Peacock as her groom and the couple got hitched only to split three months later.
Jodie later told The Star how she regretted the show. She said: “Thinking about that show makes me feel physically sick. That was the worst period of my whole life. I’m embarrassed. I’m ashamed.
“I don’t believe in regrets. I believe that in life you should learn from your mistakes.
“But if I had one regret it would be that.”
Beauty and the brawn
From 2009, gym bunny Jodie started working on her increasingly muscular frame.
She placed fifth in her first competition at the 2011 UK Natural Physique Association Bodybuilding Championships in Sheffield.
She even made two documentaries on her body building training.
In Brawn in the USA she won gold in the International Natural Bodybuilding Federation Bodybuilding Championships in Los Angeles in 2012.
She told ESPN: Some negative people in England said: 'She's trying to get attention. It's a publicity stunt’.
"But you can't do this as a publicity stunt. Shaving your hair off is a publicity stunt. I've stuck two fingers up at everyone who doubted me."
Dreaming up documentaries
Jodie kicked off a string of documentaries in 2012 with a Channel 5 factual show on how she had been bullied in her childhood and trolling.
She followed this up with another show on bullying in American schools too where she met victims.
The star used her own experiences to help empathise.
Speaking to New! magazine, Jodie said: "I'd be too scared to go to lunch because everyone would throw food at me.
"I used to think it would be better if I wasn't there because nobody cared about me anyway. I didn't think I'd be missed if I was gone."
She also filmed another doc for TLC on women who use male escorts in 2015.
She said she dreamt up the idea for a programme after searching for a gigolo online - but failing to find anyone she found attractive.
She confessed in the documentary: “I know what my motives are.
“But I also know there are women who are actually doing it, and I wanted to find out if their motives were the same as mine.”
Workout boosters
With a successful bodybuilding career behind her, Jodie brought out her own line of nutritional supplements.
The Jst Nutrition got a bit of flack at first as they contained a banned substance for natural competitions as well as caffeine.
Her manager told The Sun: “Jodie hasn’t taken the product herself as it is against the rules for the competitions in which she competes.”
In 2014 she launched some new products by posing naked.
Jodie said: "The whole reason anyone trains to be fit, strong and healthy, is ultimately to look sexy whether they admit it or not - I do."
Flogging second hand items
Some of her older outfits leave little to the imagination, but fans are willing to dish out big bucks for them.
Cottoning on to second hand sales in 2017, Jodie started her own shop on selling app Depop.
She initially flogged her fetish gear from her glamour modelling days.
She told fans: "It's all the stuff I used to use for photo shoots for the lads mags. It's all gotta go!"
She sold her iconic FHM belt outfit on the app for £2,000.
Now she still sells items on the site, but proceeds go towards her animal sanctuary, Fripp’s Farm.
Life-long dream
Jodie began working towards her dream of owning an animal sanctuary in 2020.
She explained she made the decision after her mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer - before she sadly passed away.
She said: “My mum got sick and I realised life's so short, why am I not doing what I want to be doing now?
“So I just went, ‘F*** it, I'm doing it.’ And I started and it snowballed, and now here we are with 350 animals.”
But she says the venture has wreaked havoc with her physique.
She told The Sun: "The reason I'm now fat and haven't got a six pack is because I don't have time to eat properly or even do the food shopping. Not ever.
"I used to cook healthy meals and don't have time for that anymore.
“I don’t gym at the moment either. I don't have time. It’s manic.”
OnlyFans fundraising
Jodie’s latest venture has been building up a following on her x-rated Only Fans channel.
The money raised from her saucy shoots goes towards moving to a bigger sanctuary in Chelmsford to accommodate her 350 animals.
She said how she needs £100,000 to finish building the new enclosures and £10,000 a month in vet bills.
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She says: “We’re going to have more help with the animals and it's going to be a much better set-up.
“There’s so much more land, which means I can give all the animals more space and be able to rescue more animals in the future.”