For this year's Saturday night sensation Holly Valance, it's... Strictly no romance (not when she's madly in love with a billionaire)

By Lisa Sewards and Pamela Stephenson

Last updated at 8:05 AM on 4th November 2011

Toe-to-toe: Holly Valance and Artem Chigvintsev

Her smouldering dance to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake with partner Artem Chigvintsev on last week’s Strictly won high praise from the judges and wild applause from the studio audience.

But for actress and singer Holly Valance — who rose to fame as Flick Scully in Neighbours — it was the thrilled reactions of just three people watching from the VIP seats that mattered to her the most.

Her boyfriend, billionaire property developer Nick Candy, looked on adoringly while her guests, Princess Beatrice and her boyfriend Dave Clark, beamed their support.

Afterwards, Holly tweeted her delight at becoming the first contestant to invite a princess to join the audience.

Now she is favourite to win among the remaining women contestants and, in the back-biting world off-screen, her successful partnership with Artem has forced her to deny it is making his girlfriend, last year’s winner Kara Tointon, jealous.

So how did a 28-year-old Australian girl, who started modelling at 12 to help pay for her schoolbooks and shoes, make the giant leap from Neighbours’ Ramsay Street to the world of the super-rich, a £50 million yacht and a network of glamorous friends that includes royalty?

Holly made no bones about it when I interviewed her at length a year ago.

‘I’ve never been so happy in my whole life,’ she told me. ‘I’ve got such a disgusting wide grin on my face all the time that it makes my friends just want to slap me.’

As I reported at the time, if Valance wants a fridge for her furs, a swimming pool that turns into a dance floor or a mirror with a 360-degree video with time delay and freeze function — to see what her bottom looks like from behind — she has only to ask 37-year-old Nick.

Nick and his brother, Christian, are worth a reported £9 billion — built up from a £6,000 loan from their grandmother — so money is no problem.

Holly met Nick at a dinner party given by mutual friends. ‘I didn’t know anything about him,’ she told me. ‘But I thought: “Cor, if I didn’t fancy you so much, we’d be the best of friends. Instead, I just want to make out with you all the time.” ’

Her realisation that her life was about to change came slowly. By her own admission: ‘Once I started to learn about his wealth, I was freaked out. I rang my mum and said: “I don’t think I can do this because it’s just too much.” And she said: “He’s a hard-working genius and he’s got as much right as anyone to love and be loved. So don’t look at that bespoke chandelier and gorgeous car and focus on him.”

Holly Valance and Nick Candy attend the Candy and Candy book launch party at The Halcyon Gallery in London

‘She was right, of course, and I started looking at my feet, so I didn’t notice anything too flash.’

During our interview, I was struck by her humility. ‘I wasn’t used to superyachts and private jets, and I’m not sure I will ever get used to them, and nor will Nick, because he’s also from a normal background,’ she said.

And she couldn’t resist a self-deprecating dig: ‘I am a spoilt brat. My friends and my sister say “I hate you” when I show them what he’s bought me.’

For one birthday, he gave her a stunning rose gold Rolex Daytona watch, worth £20,000. ‘It was my dream watch. And that was just one of the gifts. Nick’s so generous with all his friends and family.’

Good timing: Mr Candy bought Holly a £20,000 watch

Not that Nick holds all the aces — Holly is quite a catch herself. Voted Australia’s greatest gift since Kylie, she transformed herself from the girl next-door in Neighbours to steamy pop star. Her debut single Kiss Kiss shot to No.1 in 2002, helped by her enticing pose in knee-high leather stiletto boots.

Now she appears to be having the same effect on Strictly. The show’s host, Sir Bruce Forsyth, jokingly told her at the launch: ‘If you can feel two holes burning in the back of your head, it’s Kara Tointon’s eyes. So be very, very careful.’

She confessed to me — with engaging honesty — that the need for financial security, rather than the desire for fame, has driven her to success. Turned down for a job at McDonald’s because she was too young, she tried modelling.

Her Serbian father had split from her English mother when Holly was four, leaving her and her younger sister Coco.

‘Money was tight and Mum used to do two jobs to support us,’ she told me. ‘I never felt hard done by and never wanted for anything, but I grew up in a wealthy area where I saw people being handed things on a plate. So it made me want to earn some money and be able to buy things for myself.’

At 16, HOLLY skipped her last year at school to join the Neighbours cast and stayed until her three-year contract was up. She moved out of the family home and was sharing a house with a friend while helping pay her mother’s rent.

After launching her pop career in London, Holly had a rude awakening to the world of celebrity after a former manager sued her for breach of contract. He won the case and it cost her £150,000.

Looking back, she wishes she’d kept her counsel more often, instead of being impulsive. It was this rashness that led her to describe British men as louts, accuse British women of dressing too raunchily and the whole nation as being obsessed by sex. In reality, though, she hasn’t a nasty bone in her body — she is a thoroughly nice girl.

With that dramatic U-turn, she strode out of the spotlight and toned down her provocative image after her second album, State Of Mind, didn’t break into the top 50.

She headed to the U.S. and forged a successful acting career in hit TV series such as Entourage, CSI, Prison Break and Shark.

After being thrust into the Strictly spotlight, it wasn’t long before the gossip started about her relationship with Chigvintsev. She denies it firmly, and to prove she and Kara Tointon are friends, she tweeted a picture of them hugging.

‘When I was younger, things got to me more, but not now. I realise it’s a necessary evil,’ is Holly’s philosophy.

‘I thought there would be c**p from day one. That’s what happens when you are on a show like this.’
And after all, Artem Chigvintsev may be eye candy — but she’s got the sweeter Candy.

Tricks and treats were FAB-U-LOUS

Cutbacks at the BBC? Strictly Come Dancing’s Halloween show featured such lavish costumes, the devil was in the retail.

Ola Jordan’s feathered paso look combined haute couture runway with vintage Michael Jackson and was oddly brilliant.

And I don’t remember ever seeing such an interesting number as Artem Chigvintsev’s Swan Lake-inspired American Smooth, in which Holly Valance channelled the Black Swan in feathery, new-wave eye make-up and tutu.

Tight wardrobe: Chelsee

I would have loved to have been at the production meeting when Robbie Savage’s gyrations came up for debate. Sure, his crotch-grabs were Jacksonesque; we’ve seen that move a million times and thought: ‘Oh, that’s just Michael.’

But Robbie did go the extra mile and, in one of the most impressive acts of sycophancy I’ve seen, leapt onto the judges’ table and thrust his man-parts into Craig’s face.

Fab-u-lous, as Craig might say. And it worked. Alesha bestowed high marks for high thrusts (what girl wouldn’t?) and even the butter-wouldn’t-melt Tess Daly was moved to remark: ‘You nearly put Craig’s eye out!’ Attagirl.

I’m not sure what kind of ‘wardrobe malfunction’ made Chelsee cry, but at one point she seemed to be scooping her boob back into her dress. Not that tragic.

But, for my money, tragedy did occur last Sunday when diva Nancy Dell’Olio was eliminated. Come on, people! She’d threatened to choreograph her own number — surely you wanted to see that? Trick or treat? Boo hoo! We’ll never know.