HELEN Flanagan is set sent pulses racing with her provocative outfits when she returns to TV on Celebs Go Dating.
The Coronation Street star, 34, is looking for romance after splitting with her partner of 13 years, Scott Sinclair, two years ago.
But things were almost over before they began, as her naughty behaviour almost saw her booted off the E4 series, which starts Monday.
Dating agent Anna Williamson, 42, revealed: “Helen, I just love her.
“What I will say about her though – and I don’t want to spoil anything – but Helen has the biggest cliffhanger pivot of a storyline that we’ve ever had in Celebs Go Dating history.
“Helen nearly got thrown out of the agency two weeks ago. She did something huge which goes against all the rules of the agency.”
Helen certainly likes to keep things interesting when it comes to her behaviour as well as her clothes.
And she’s been opting for more risqué outfits since embracing single life and starting to date.
She was just 19 years old when she met footballer Scott, then 20, and the couple quickly started a family.
While she has always been happy to pose in lingerie, she opted for more demure outfits during her romance with Scott.
But she’s always been happy to show off her ample cleavage – including in I’m A Celebrity back in 2009 where she became the camp’s token shower babe.
Reflecting on how she was treated by the public for her time in the Australian Outback, Helen said: “I was in the jungle when I was 22 and got ripped apart in there so I’m past the stage of it affecting me.”
Four years after the ITV show, Helen was voted FHM’s sexiest woman in the UK poll in 2013 and stripped off for her first lads’ mag shoot.
At the time she said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be voted the Sexiest Woman in the UK. It’s a lovely confidence boost, especially when there are so many beautiful girls out there.”
She has also gone on to defend the glamour shoots she posed for in the past, saying: “There’s nothing wrong with doing lingerie shoots.
“And my glamour modelling was always tasteful and fun.”
Confidence operation
The former Corrie star naturally had an E cup, but after she finished breastfeeding her children, they shrank down to a B cup.
Helen told how it left her feeling less confident and she opted to have a boob job in 2022.
“It was always something I planned to do,” she said. “When I was younger, I was quite busty, but I breastfed for years – one baby after the other – and by the end of that I didn’t feel confident.
“It’s such a personal choice and I’m all for female empowerment and for women feeling beautiful, confident and sexy. After so many years of pregnancy, breastfeeding and watching Peppa Pig, this has really made me feel like myself again.”
She opted to return to her original size E, telling Fabulous Magazine: “I’m happy with what I’ve got now. I’ve got quite a small frame, so I only went for what I’d had before to get back to me.”
And since then, she’s enjoyed flaunting her assets and even ditched bras.
Gushing about the operation’s results on social media, she said: “So nice, I don’t have to wear a bra any more in the summer.”
Editing confession
She hasn’t always felt confident in her figure, admitting to editing photos in the past, but having a daughter made her want to be more confident.
While she was still with Scott, and after the birth of her first two kids, she shared with the world that she had been giving herself virtual tweaks before posting on social media.
She wrote on Instagram: “I’ve decided to stop editing my pictures to be a better role model to my daughters.”
Helen added: “I’ve been lucky enough to carry two healthy babies and nurse them both for nearly two years.
“My skin on my stomach has changed, my boobs massively have (no creepy comments from any creepy men here this is a post about body confidence for other women, I will just delete and block) the change in my boobs definitely has made me feel less confident in myself but I wouldn’t change a thing.
“I have cellulite, I don’t have a big bum. I have edited it in the past as it’s something I am self-conscious of. I’d look at other women on Instagram and put myself down for not looking like that.
“Me and Matilda were dancing around here. I want to teach her to love and feel confident in her own skin and that beauty is in the inside and doing that by example x.”
Moving on
While Helen initially struggled to move on from her relationship with Scott, being seen wearing her engagement ring and posting photos of her wedding dress, she has been embracing the single life.
She told OK!: “I wasn’t ready for such a long time – I was with him from when I was 19 to when I was 31. I was totally like a fish out of water. I didn’t have a clue about anything. It took me a while to find my feet.”
Helen’s made sure her kids are kept up to date as well with her plans to find love.
It led to an amusing moment when her daughter Matilda revealed that Helen was going on a date.
The tot said: “My mum’s going on a date with someone tomorrow, and I think she said he’s very hot.”
Opting to pose in sexy outfits may be one way Helen has been showing potential love interests that she’s ready to be wowed.
It took her two years to be ready to move on from Scott, and she hopes Celebs Go Dating will help her find someone to be “besotted with”.
She had tried dating apps, joining Raya in January 2023, but was left underwhelmed. She told OK!: “I had a dating app, but it was just awful. I feel the apps can make people quite shallow. I don’t want to go on a date with a guy just because I think he’s fit.”
Helen admitted that she has high standards when it comes to her next relationship and that older men suited who she was better.
She told the magazine: “It’s nice to date someone who is a dad – they understand life a lot better. I am a mum with three kids, so I feel more comfortable dating men who are about 10 years older.”
TV return
Helen is certainly set to treat viewers with some hot outfits during the E4 show, if her Instagram posts are anything to go by.
And the star hopes the show will help her find lasting love and help her find confidence.
Show romance guru Anna Williamson revealed: “Helen needs to do a lot of work on inner-self critic.”
She added: “The pressures of having kids and not learning how to communicate properly are like a bomb’s gone off.
“They are back in the dating pool, with children, an ex and suffering low self-esteem – Helen will be the poster girl for that.”
The trailer for the show teases a kiss between Helen and a mystery man, but to find out if she’s found a lasting romance, viewers will have to tune in.
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