Model Rhian Sugden posed in a busty red lace bodysuit on Saturday for a new image shared with her followers on Instagram. The 39-year-old styled her brunette locks into bouncy waves and pouted into the camera while modeling the Ann Summers lingerie. Captioning the post, Sugden wrote: "Still keeping my skillset broad."
Fans left numerous comments sharing praise and appreciation for the star. Her post comes weeks after she detailed how her sexting scandal with presenter Vernon Kay still haunts her career today, stating that people get less for murder.
Sugden, who is married to Oliver Mellor and shares a son named George, is preparing to talk about how the scandal affected her in an upcoming tell-all book. She explained that while there will be mention of Kay in the book, people are expecting revelations about a sordid affair that did not happen.
Speaking to The Mirror, Sugden said: "People get less of a sentence for murder. I'd understand if there'd been a full-blown affair, but there wasn't. Yet somehow, nearly 20 years later, it's still something that follows me around."
Sugden added: "I've spent years building a career and businesses that I'm incredibly proud of, and I'd much rather people talked about those than one chapter of my life that refuses to go away."
History of the sexting controversy
The controversy began in 2010 when Kay was forced to make a public apology to ex Tess Daly on BBC Radio 1 after a set of saucy messages sent to Sugden came to light. Live on air, Kay promised he would no longer contact Sugden or the four other women he had been caught messaging at the time.
Kay, a father of two, has always maintained that the messages were flirty banter and that he never acted inappropriately. Fresh allegations surfaced in 2016 claiming Kay had once again been in touch with Sugden, and the scandal resurfaced when Kay and Daly announced their marriage split in May.
Documentary comments on career impact
In 2020, Sugden claimed the sexting scandal ruined her career and lamented that Kay got away with it after apologizing. She said it still made her feel sick that he returned to his presenting duties afterwards, adding that she wishes she had never met him.
Speaking on the Channel 4 documentary Page Three: The Naked Truth, Sugden said: "He just got away with it. It ruined everything for me. I felt like I was going up and up with my career, and then that came along. I wish I'd never met him. He got to give an apology on the radio and just got to carry on, with Family Fortunes, ironically. It still makes me feel sick."
