Olivia Attwood has come a long way since she first graced our screens on Love Island in 2017. The 33-year-old has since carved out an impressive career, fronting her own string of TV documentaries, hosting her own podcast and joining Loose Women as a regular panellist with her quick wit and candid wisdom.
After the success of Olivia’s first two seasons of Getting Filthy Rich, the award-winning documentary series returns on ITV2 tonight (Sunday, 2 February) as she dives deeper into the adult industry, uncovering its diverse nature. As we welcome back the TV sensation, we’ve taken a look back at Olivia’s rise to fame, from growing up in London to her major transformation…
Early days
Before becoming the golden girl of TV we all know and love today, Olivia had a typical upbringing in London with her parents, Jenny and Kai Attwood, and her younger siblings sister, Georgia and brother, Max. Reflecting on her childhood, she previously shared, “My parents taught me to always stand up for myself and never let anyone dim my light.” With her confidence and quick wit from the start, she expressed, “I hated being told what to do,” adding that school was “just another stage with too many rules.”
The 33-year-old has been open about her struggles with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and the impact it had on her life. She previously shared on Loose Women, “Later in life I found myself with a severe battle of anxiety and depression, and came under the care of a psychiatrist who specialised in ADHD.
“It was a stroke of luck that it was diagnosed. [It’s] state of being constantly overwhelmed.” She added, “Pre-Love Island, I just kind of hit this point where everything came to a head. My anxiety was through the roof, I was fluctuating in and out of mild depression, and I had to actually get some help for it.”
Olivia explained the type of ADHD she has, “There are three major types. I fall into a combined type…There’s the typical type people look for – hyperactive child in the classroom, throwing things, breaking things. Other types – internalised, fidgeting, restless thoughts, disorganised, acting on impulse”.
TV fame
She first began her career as a model and motorsport grid girl before entering the Love Island villa in 2017, where she finished in third place. Success soon followed as she starred in her own reality show with ex-boyfriend Chris Hughes, Chris and Olivia: Crackin’ On, before appearing on the likes of Celebs Go Dating, The Only Way is Essex and The Games.
Despite her personality shining through on reality TV and fans hailing her humorous and candid on-screen marks, Olivia knew that this wasn’t her “endgame”. So she went into the world of presenting. “I had to learn to tone down the drama, but not too much – just enough to be taken seriously without losing what makes me, me.”
Her determination and strive certainly paid off as the former reality sensation then graced our screens with the docu-series Getting Filthy Rich in 2022. She served up four in-depth episodes before returning for its second series last year. Following its huge success, the third series is back as Olivia plunges into the depths of the adult world, shedding light on its eclectic arena and some eyebrow-raising niches.
Getting Filthy Rich isn’t Olivia’s only show returning this year, as her ITV reality show, Bad Boyfriends, has also been recommissioned for a second series following, along with her ITV show, Price of Perfection. This comes as no surprise, considering Olivia’s extensive experience in the television industry.
Additionally, the superstar landed two shows of her own, Olivia Meets Her Match and Olivia Marries Her Match, with her husband, Bradley Dack, and regularly joins the panel on Loose Women. Not to mention her hilarious podcast, Olivia Attwood’s So Wrong It’s Right, which launched in 2023.
Unrecognisable transformation
After finding fame on Love Island at the tender age of 26, Olivia has previously expressed discomfort with her appearance and early desire for cosmetic surgery. She disclosed to The Times why she opted for breast augmentation at just 20 years old, stating, “I was fixated and it was cheap and quick. These b****y boobs were so heavy. I was happy for a year, then I realised they didn’t look right for my frame.”
She recounted the ordeal of her implants continual sagging, lamenting, “The weight of the implants started to stretch my skin and they got lower and lower. I started to think, ‘This isn’t what I signed up for at all.” Olivia also shared her subsequent experiments with non-invasive beauty treatments, revealing, “I do the non-surgical stuff to my face – Botox, all the jazzy skincare, the Morpheus8, the lasers.
“I’ll try everything that’s new. I’ll do dots of filler here and there. Fillers are a journey I’ve been on.” She further commented on the illusion of naturalness in cosmetic procedures, adding, “The ‘natural’ that women are buying isn’t natural at all.”
Throwback photos of Olivia have resurfaced over the years, showing her with bleach-blonde air and noticeably smaller lips and brows before TV fame. In a snap from her pageant days in Las Vegas, Olivia remarked how “there is no top lip or eyebrows. So bizarre”. In another post, she joked about her bright blonde hair and dark tan back in 2014 as she said, “The colour of my skin/hair combination is really something.”
Olivia is thought to have begun getting lip filler a year or so before entering the Love Island villa, as they looked noticeably plumper in some 2016 snaps, while also opting for fuller brows these days. Ditching the bright blonde, today Olivia can be sporting warmer tones of blonde in her long locks paired with a full, bouncy chic fringe.
