Stunning pin-ups who vanished off the radar…Emmerdale star voted UK’s hottest to FHM ‘sexiest woman’ who joined sex cult
SHE was the tennis pin-up who was once named the sexiest woman on the planet.
Anna Kournikova won a grand slam at the age of just 17 and became one of the most famous women in the world.
But she was forced to quit the sport due to injury just four years later after winning 16 career titles in the doubles game.
Since then she has disappeared from view, keeping her life very private, along with her long-term boyfriend and father of her two children, singer Enrique Iglesias.
So 43-year-old Anna shocked fans last week when she was spotted in in a wheelchair at a shopping centre with her leg in an orthopaedic boot.
Anna had spoken candidly in the past about the health struggles which ended her tennis career prematurely and her struggle to adjust to life after sport.
“It was very interesting to me to stop playing and to figure out, ‘Who am I without tennis?’ It was very difficult and scary as hell,” she said.
“I did everything from therapy to 10-hour walks on the beach to discover, and think, and try new things.”
But Anna isn’t the only global superstar to step away from celebrity life after years of being under the spotlight.
Sophie Anderton
The former public schoolgirl shot to fame in 1996 aged just 19 as the face – and body – of Gossard’s Wonderbra.
In the noughties she was a regular fixture in lads’ mags, appearing on the cover of FHM, Loaded and Nuts.
She went on to appear in I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here and was a housemate on the 12th series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2013.
But she has since stepped away from the limelight and has become a fitness guru.
The 47-year-old Bristolian is married to aristocratic jazz musician Count Kaz Balinski-Jundzill, who was previously married to chef Lorraine Pascale.
They live together at his 1,500-acre Glendalough House in Wicklow, Ireland.
Last year Sophie said her love of wellness and exercise helped her cope after suffering a miscarriage and accepting that she would not be able to have a child of her own.
Instead she chose to embrace the family the couple already have – Kaz’s four children from previous relationships and Sophie’s 13 godchildren.
She said: “It’s been the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, to accept that we won’t have a child of our own,” the former supermodel says.
“I’ve experienced a rollercoaster of emotions over it, but Kaz has been amazing and beyond supportive as he reconciled himself to it too.
“Once we accepted the fact that having a baby wouldn’t happen, it was liberating, as if the final piece of a puzzle had slotted into place.”
Adele Silva
As Emmerdale’s tearaway Kelly Windsor, Adele was part of some of the most controversial storylines the soap had ever seen – including having an affair with her step-brother.
The role propelled her to super-stardom making her a favourite pin-up in lads mags FHM, Loaded and Maxim.
She quit the soap in 2007 and headed to LA in 2009 to try to crack Hollywood – but, like many actors, ended up having to take a day job in a shop to make ends meet.
But it was her struggle to have a baby that made Adele, now 44, re-evaluate her life and quit fame.
After she and her partner, businessman Oliver Farber, finally welcomed baby girl Sienna into the world in 2015, Adele revealed she had suffered three devastating miscarriages in as many years.
After winning a role in Hollyoaks the same year she gave birth, she later decided to quit showbiz and focus on being a mum.
She now uses her acting skills as an acting coach at the National Film and Television School and also works casting up-and-coming stars for new roles.
Kristin Kreuk
The Canadian actress shot to fame aged just 18 as the star of teen drama Edgemont.
With her acting talent and stunning looks more film and TV roles followed, including the lead role of Snow White in the TV movie Snow White: The Fairest of Them All.
But aged just 23, she unwittingly got involved in a sex cult when she joined NXIVM, thinking it was a self-help group to conquer her shyness.
It was only when the cult was raided in 2018, amid accusations that women were coerced into having sex with its leader and branded with his initials, that Kristin spoke about her involvement and denied any wrong-doing.
In a statement on Twitter, the Smallville star added: “The accusations that I was in the ‘inner circle’ or recruited women as ‘sex slaves’ are blatantly false.”
Now aged 41, she lives in Canada. Nothing is known about her personal life.
Jolene Blalock
Jolene made her name as Star Trek’s sexiest Vulcan, T’Pol, in the Enterprise series, from 2001 to 2005.
Born in San Diego she launched her successful modelling career at the age of just 17, posing in lads mags and doing a clothed fashion shoot for Playboy. Jolene was named the 10th sexiest woman in the world by FHM in 2003.
She married Live Nation boss Michael Rapino in 2003 and continued to act until she gave birth to the couple’s first son in 2010. They have since had two more boys.
Focusing on family life and charity work, she disappeared from the spotlight – but the 48-year-old is still unbelievably glamorous.
Last year she briefly returned to acting to voice an alternate universe version of her Star Trek: Enterprise character in the Star Trek: Lower Decks fifth season episode “Fissure Quest”. Keeping her air of mystery, she was credited just as Jolene.
Show creator Mike McMahon said: “She didn’t tell me why, but she was like, ‘I would prefer just to be Jolene in this,’ and we were happy to do it.”
Jakki Degg
Jakki was named The Sun’s ‘Best Ever Page 3 Girl‘ in 2003 and graced the covers of hundreds of lads mags in the noughties.
It was her mum who was behind her rise to fame, encouraging Jakki to enter the inaugural Max Power magazine babes competition – which she won.
FHM named her as one of the UK’s 100 sexiest girls of 2002. But she also had brains as well as beauty, graduating from university with a psychology degree.
After a decade modelling she quit the industry and, now 41, she is an electronic DJ, and has swapped her signature blonde bob for brunette locks.
Michelle Marsh
Care assistant Michelle became a model at 18 and went on to became a regular in men’s mags including Playboy, Loaded, Maxim and Nuts.
She was famed for her 32FF natural assets in the early noughties, which led to her being billed as the ‘new Samantha Fox’.
She then focused on launching a pop career with her single ‘I Don’t Do’ peaking at number 89 in the UK charts in 2006.
Michelle, now 41, also appeared on TV shows including the X Factor: Battle of the Stars, The Weakest Link and Celebrity Big Brother.
She married former Scottish footballer Will Haining in 2007 and they went on to have three children.
She quit her modelling career to focus on her family and opened a children’s boutique store, TillyFlops, in her native Oldham in 2012.