Michelle Christine Heaton (born 19 July 1979) is an English singer, stage actress and television personality. She is best known as member of the pop group

Liberty X Liberty X (originally called Liberty) are a British girl group consisting of Michelle Heaton, Jessica Taylor and Kelli Young. The group's best-known line-up also included Tony Lundon and Kevin Simm. The group was formed by the five finalists of ...

Early life

Heaton was born in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The county is ...

, England, on 19 July 1979. A former student of

Emmanuel City Technology College Emmanuel College is a secondary school and sixth form college (years 7-13) based in Gateshead, England. It was founded in 1990 as a City Technology College, i.e. a secondary school which is partly funded by donations from business donors who re ...

in Gateshead and Newcastle College of Performing Arts, she began her singing career in the group

Sirens Siren or sirens may refer to: Common meanings * Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies * Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology that lured sailors to their deaths. Places * Si ...

in the late 1990s with other girls from the northeast of England.

Career

2001–2007: Liberty X

In 2001, Heaton auditioned for the ITV reality television music competition ''

Popstars ''Popstars'' is an international reality television franchise aimed to find new singing talent. Serving as a precursor to the ''Idol'' franchise, '' Popstars'' first began in New Zealand in 1999 when producer Jonathan Dowling formed the girl gr ...

'', a show intended to form a new group from individual contestants, becoming one of the finalist. While the five winning contestants formed

Hear'Say Hear'Say were a British pop group. They were created through the ITV (TV network), ITV reality TV show ''Popstars (British TV series), Popstars'' in February 2001, the first UK series of the international ''Popstars'' Media franchise, franch ...

, the five runner-up contestants – Heaton, Tony Lundon,

Kevin Simm Kevin Ian Simm (born 5 September 1980) is an English singer and songwriter. He was a member of Liberty X (2001–2007) and is the vocalist of Wet Wet Wet. Simm also won ''The Voice UK'' in 2016. Career 2001–2007: Liberty X In 2001, Simm a ...

Jessica Taylor Jessica Pietersen (; born 23 June 1980) is an English singer. She is best known as member of the pop group Liberty X. Career 1999–2007: Liberty X and hiatus In a 1999 Pietersen starred the musical '' Gigi'' as the title role. In 2001, Piete ...

and

Kelli Young Kelli Young (born 7 April 1982) is an English singer. She is best known as member of the pop group Liberty X. Personal life Kelli Young was born 7 April 1982. She went to Derby High School, Littleover, until she was 16. Her mother is Bajan. I ...

– formed the group

and signed a multimillion-pound record contract with

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

and

V2 Records V2 Records (or V2 Music and V2 Benelux; V2 being an abbreviation for Virgin 2) is a record label that was purchased by Universal Music Group in 2007, sold to PIAS in 2013 and partially acquired by Universal in 2022 (as part of larger PIAS 49% ...

. Liberty X released three studio albums and enjoyed seven Top 10 singles from 2001 to 2005: Their biggest hit, " Just a Little", reached number one in May 2002; " Thinking It Over", " Got to Have Your Love", "

Song 4 Lovers "Song 4 Lovers" is a song by English pop group Liberty X, released as the lead single from their third studio album, '' X'' (2005). The song features uncredited vocals from Rev Run of Run-D.M.C. and was produced by Liberty X member Tony Lundo ...

", and " Holding on for You" all reached the top 5 in the UK Singles Chart. They split up in 2007 after selling over 3 million records worldwide. During this time, Heaton also starred two reality shows: '' Totally Scott-Lee'' (2005), based around the

Lisa Scott-Lee Lisa Scott-Lee (born 5 November 1975) is a British singer from St Asaph, Wales. She is a member of the pop group Steps, formed in 1997. Scott-Lee signed a record deal with Mercury Records and launched a solo career in 2003, achieving only min ...

solo career, and

ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the fiv ...

's ''Michelle & Andy's Big Day'' (2006) about Heaton and Andy Scott-Lee wedding.

2007–2012: Television appearances

In 2007 Heaton was one of the judges on ''

You're a Star ''You're a Star'' is an Irish music competition series broadcast by RTÉ One from 2002 to 2008. Produced by the broadcaster and Screentime ShinAwiL, the series was similar to formats such as '' Idol'' and ''The X Factor''. For its first three ...

'', an Irish talent show run on

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

. In 2008, she competed on the reality television shows '' Fáilte Towers'' on

RTÉ One RTÉ One is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by RTÉ. It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís Éireann'' on 31 December 1961, it was renamed ''R ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and on a celebrity edition of ''

Come Dine with Me ''Come Dine with Me'' is a British reality series that has aired on Channel 4 since 10 January 2005 and is narrated by Dave Lamb. Format The original format features five amateur chefs who live in the same town or area, who each host a three-c ...

'', finishing in third place. In 2009 Heaton appeared in the sixth series of ''

Celebrity Big Brother ''Celebrity Big Brother'' or ''Big Brother VIP'' is an adaptation of the '' Big Brother'' reality television series. It is the celebrity version of its parent franchise ''Big Brother'', the celebrity version airs in several countries, however, t ...

'' and as an elf on ''

Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway ''Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'' (referred to simply as ''Saturday Night Takeaway'', ''Takeaway'' or ''SNT'') is a British television variety show, presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloquially known as Ant & Dec), ...

'' on Saturday 21 March 2009. In 2007/08 she appeared at the Sunderland Empire in Cinderella with her then partner Andy Scott Lee, Mickey Rooney and Les Dennis. In 2010 she was in ''

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...

'' at the

Southport Theatre Southport Theatre was a theatre in Southport, England owned by Sefton Council. The theatre presented a programme of touring shows, opera and children's shows throughout the year. The theatre was also a popular choice for national and internatio ...

where she played the role of

Princess Jasmine Jasmine is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' animated film ''Aladdin'' (1992). Voiced by Linda Larkin with a singing voice provided by Lea Salonga Jasmine is the spirited daughter of the Sultan, who has grown weary o ...

. From 2010 to 2011 Heaton starred the comedy ''The Naked Truth'' as Gabby. In 2015 she returned to

Harpenden Harpenden () is a town and civil parish in the City and District of St Albans in the county of Hertfordshire, England. The population of the built-up area was 30,674 in the 2021 census, while the population of the civil parish was 31,128. Harpe ...

2013–present: Liberty X return

In 2013 Heaton reunited with

for

's reality show ''

The Big Reunion ''The Big Reunion'' is a British reality-documentary series that began airing on ITV2 on 31 January 2013. The show featured chart-topping bands who were big in the UK pop music scene between the 1990s and early 2000s, and the programme followed ...

'', along with other pop groups of their time –

B*Witched B*Witched are an Irish girl group consisting of twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch, Lindsay Armaou and Sinéad O'Carroll. Originally active between 1997 and 2002, they enjoyed success in both Europe and North America between 1998 and 2002 ...

Honeyz The Honeyz are a British Contemporary R&B, R&B girl group currently composed of members Célena Cherry, Heavenli Abdi and Cherry's sister, Candace Cherry, as a touring member. The group had five UK top 10 hits between 1998 and 2000, with "Final ...

911 911, 9/11 or Nine Eleven may refer to: Dates * AD 911 * 911 BC * September 11 ** The 2001 September 11 attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda, commonly referred to as 9/11 ** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that ousted the ...

, Five and

Atomic Kitten Atomic Kitten were an English girl group formed in Liverpool in 1998, whose original lineup comprised Kerry Katona, Liz McClarnon, and Natasha Hamilton. The group was founded by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) members Andy McCluskey an ...

– to solve past problems and do a live performance at the London

Hammersmith Apollo The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly and still commonly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Pa ...

on 26 February. Due to the success, Liberty X returned for a full tour between 2013 and 2014. In 2017, Heaton,

and

reformed

again, but as a three-piece girl group, without Tony and Kevin. Since then, they continued touring at music festivals and Pride events. In January 2023, Heaton competed in the fifteenth series of ''

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series broadcast from 2006 to 2014 and then from 2018 to 2025. It was presented by Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern. Other previous hosts include Phillip Schofield and Christine Lampard. The series ...

'', paired with

Łukasz Różycki Łukasz Różycki (; born 13 December 1979 in Warsaw, Poland) is a Polish pair skating, pair skater who competed with Aneta Kowalska. He is married to Finnish skater Alexandra Schauman. Competitive highlights ''Dancing on Ice'' In January 201 ...

, finishing in 10th place. In spring 2023, Heaton joined the presenting team of shopping channel

Ideal World Ideal World is a British TV shopping channel, broadcasting on DTT, satellite and online, with transactional websites, previously hosted from studios in Peterborough. It is now owned by TJC and broadcast from their offices in West London, fol ...

. In September 2023,

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

announced Heaton as one of the contestants competing on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.

Personal life

Michelle married singer Andy Scott-Lee in October 2006 and announced their split in June 2008. She married Irish businessman Hugh Hanley in

The Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

in July 2010.

Health and alcohol abuse

In 2012, Heaton was diagnosed with a mutated

BRCA2 ''BRCA2'' and BRCA2 () are human genes and their protein products, respectively. The official symbol (BRCA2, italic for the gene, nonitalic for the protein) and the official name (originally breast cancer 2; currently BRCA2, DNA repair associate ...

gene and then found out that she had an 80% chance of developing

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

and a 30% chance of developing

ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different ...

. She underwent a double mastectomy and had breast reconstructive surgery in November 2012.''

Loose Women ''Loose Women'' (known as ''Live Talk'' from 2000 to 2001) is a British talk show that broadcasts on ITV weekdays from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. The show focuses on a panel of four female presenters who interview celebrities, talk about aspects of ...

'', 27 February 2013 During a part recorded and part live interview, Michelle stated that her daughter Faith has a 50% chance of inheriting the mutated gene that she has and her father is a BRCA2 carrier. In 2021, Michelle appeared on the UK television show

to speak about her alcohol addiction and her time in rehab.

Filmography

Television

Stage

Discography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heaton, Michelle 1979 births Living people Liberty X Musicians from Tyne and Wear Participants in Irish reality television series Actors from Gateshead Actresses from Tyne and Wear Heaton, Michelle