| Daily Express interview with Rachel In a vast suite of London's Savoy hotel the girl who has just been voted Sexiest Woman In Britain - S Club 7's Rachel Stevens - is getting read for another party. "Hi,' she says, rather slowly proffering a hand. "I've just come down from tour rehearsals in Sheffield in a helicopter. My head is all over the place" Surrounding her is a scene that every girl in the country knows very well, except much more flashy. The outfits strewn everywhere are Matthew Williamson, Boyd and Maria Grachvogel instead of Top Shop and Miss Selfridge. The other girls flitting around the rooms in various states of undress preparing for the FHM poll party include TV presenter, Beverly Turner and Gossard model Kate Groombridge. Champagne is being poured by waiters in dinner jackets (looking somewhat hot under the collar) and every space not taken up with bags and the day's old knickers (true) is heavily laden with vases of fresh flowers and trays of food. No one has to find a small crack of the mirror to do their face eithers, there is a make-up artist, a couple of hairdressers and three top stylists to primp, tweak, coo and advise. This really is a girl's getting-ready-to-go-out Nirvana. Yet in the midst of this, Britain's most beautiful babe who came second only to the unassailable Jennifer Lopez in the poll of the sexiest woman in the world, is having a familiar crisis. The 22-year-old has tried on every dress in her size (which is so tiny that many of the size 10s and eights just don't fit) but she thinks her legs look awful in everything. She picks up her mobile to try to locate a pair of her favourite leather trousers. "But you looked so gorgeous in this," wails a stylist holding up a chainmail halter neck number. Rachel crinkles her nose and makes the call. (It turns out she has to wear a dress because all the other girls are going to, so she reluctantly picks out a floor-length tangerine number that looks stunning). "I never really want to wear dresses because I hate my legs," she says. "If I could change anything, I'd make my legs loads longer and more toned. I don't even like people seeing my legs. If we have to wear skirts for a photo shoot, I keep my trousers on underneath." This is not what you'd expect from the newly-crowned sexiest babe, but then Rachel Stevens is nothing like you'd expect anyway. She has no pushy pop star airs or graces. Small, pretty in a Jennifer Aniston sort of way ("people always say that"), she does nothing to attract attention. This is perhaps her appeal. As an FHM spokesman admits: "Men like Rachel because she epitomises the girl next-door image. People have this idea that men always go for the really obvious women but girls like Rachel always win out over them. Sweet girls are what men really want and Rachel is a real sweetie. You could imagine going out with someone like her. Let's face it, a vamp is too much to handle on a full-time basis. Sweet, pretty, a little bit shy and with a gorgeous body to boot - that's what men find really sexy. Our readers love Rachel." Rachel doesn't think she's sexy. " I was unbelievably shocked when I got a phone call about the poll. I never think of myself in that way. I was really pleased and flattered, but I didn't walk up to the mirror and kiss myself or tell myself I was gorgeous. I just told the other members of the band. Everybody laughed and said well done and then I think we all had a cup of tea to celebrate. Nothing very glamorous." It is hard to get Rachel to talk about herself as opposed to her part in S Club 7. She looks a little lost without the six other members of the band. She is not the sort to dream about going solo, and is horrified at the suggestion. "I just love being in S Club,", she says. "I'm so pleased about our single (Don't Stop Moving went back to Number One for a second time in yesterday's charts) and the tour (it started this weekend) is going to be brilliant. We're working really hard and we're going back to LA to film another TV series theis year, so I don't have the time to think about anything else except the band." You can see why Simon Fuller (who discovered and was fired by The Spice Girls) felt he had found the perfect antidote to the Famous Five when he put together S Club. Rachel and her clan are not interested in Girl Power. She is more happy to work hard, do what she's told, set a positive example and put that squeak into clean. The recent S Club 7 blot on the copybook (the three boys in the band were charged with possession of cannabis) was frowned upon by the girls, despite their support for the boys. "It was a mistake and it was wrong," Rachel has said. "We have a duty to our fans and we would never condone anything like this. It's not what the band is about." Rachel is a fan of family values. She lives at home in North London, despite the fact that she has bought a flat (it's 100 yards away from mum and dad) and has a long-term boyfriend, Holby City's Jeremy Edwards, 30.i "We're really happy," she says. "We don't want to move in together because we're still very young. He was really happy for me when he found out I'd got this award. He sent me a big bouquet of lilies and lilac flowers because they are my favourites but he didn't say, "Right, let's get married" or anything. He's not worried I'm going to go off with anyone else. He's my perfect man. He's a lovely, lovely guy and he makes me happy. Rachel calls herself "lucky" and she is. She is wanted to get into the music business from an early age. At 17, she was spotted in a restaurant and asked if she would like to join a band. " It was what I'd always wanted," she says. " So I didn't think twice and being in this band has been everything I ever dreamed of. I think one of the moments I'll never forget is sitting in a tent in the middle of Siberia surrounded by tigers for a wildlife television show. We had no make-up, no nothing, not even a proper toilet. We ate baked beans straight out a can, but it was fantastic. You get to have all these experiences that are totally amazing and that's what is really special. To me, this sexy thing is just a bit of a laugh." Asked what she thinks makes a woman sexy, she thinks for a moment. "It's not sexy underwear or low-cut dresses. Really its the vibe you give off. I think its all about confidence. If you have an inner confidence, then people respond to you. I'm not as confident as I'd like to be, but I'm a lot more confident than I was when I was younger. Apart from my legs, I'm okay about everything else. I don't think I'm stunning or anything, but I'm happy with what I've got and I suppose this will give me a bit more confidence which is lovely." As a teenager, Rachel was never the one who the guys went for. "I looked really, really young. I'm small, five foot two and a half - the half is very important - so that didn't help. I have always been a little bit of a flirt, but that doesn't help if a doorman won't let you into a nightclub with the rest of your mates. That was so embarrassing." I ask whether now she feels she ought to turn into an old-fashioned sex bomb, dye her hair blonde, and dig out her slinkiest clothes. She laughs and shakes her heard. "Both Jennifer Lopez and I are brunettes and most of the people in the top 10 are too, so I think that should make people change their preconceptions. It's always bad news to try to be sexy, you just have to be who you are and that's it. This isn't going to change me in any way. It's nice and it's lovely, but I'm not going to wake up tomorrow, look into the mirror and think I'm the biggest babe on earth. I'm still going to see the same girl who doesn't like her legs." Just for the record, there's nothing wrong with Rachel's legs....but if she's not going to be convinced by all the men in Britain, she's not going to be convinced by me. And that's what makes her just like everybody else. Rachel Stevens is our kind of girl. Copyright: Daily Express |
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