Lacey Turner Online

It's easy to believe Lacey is a homebody. She's timid and looks so young she'd almost certainly need her passport to get beyond the bouncers at her local Ritzy. But then read up on her past and it seems she's not so retiring after all, attracting as much trouble in real life as her alter ego does in Walford. When she was 17 Lacey hit the headlines after being caught on CCTV romping in a hotel corridor with her then-boyfriend Jake Gotlib. Her next and only other relationship, with Matt Kaye, ended in 2007 after he was exposed as a drug dealer. Most recently, in February last year, a man she didn't even know punched her in the face outside a nightclub in Watford. For a girl who claims to love the quiet life, it all adds up to another incongruity, but Lacey is quick to defend herself. "I'm not embarrased about any of those stories. I have done mad things in the past, and behaved badly, but who hasn't?. The difference is that I'm on television so everyone get to know about it!". Growing up in the spotlight has been tough and it's made her loathe fame. "It scares me because so much is out of your control, it makes you really think before you do anything. I'm terrible for getting drunk and can get completely pissed on just a few glasses of wine. What I've learnt over the past few years is that it just isn't worth it. i'd rather not be in the papers the next day."

As unpleasant as it was to read those stories, Lacey puts them down to experience. Understandadly, she's less thick skinned when it comes to taunts about her weight. "The only thing that hurt me was being called fat."I'm not toned because I don't go to the gym, but I'm not fat. I cried when I saw the article. I can see how easy it is to get obsessed with weight, but I won't go down that road. Im happy with myself. I've just got to stop worrying about what everyone else thinks of me."

However, this wasn't always the case. At just 18 she booked herself in for a £4,000 boob job, going from 32B to a 32D to give her the curves she craved. Surely this isn't the action of someone 100 per cent happy with her body?. Lacey doesn't even flinch at the question. "I don't see it as anything other than quite a simple thing,I didn't do it to look sexy. I felt odd and out of proportion. My body looked wrong. In my family all the women have tiny chests. I know I was just 18, but I knew my shape wouldn't change because it's in my genes. I don't regret it. I think my body looks the way it should now.I'm proud I had the operation."

She knows her own mind, makes her own money and is incredibly successful, which is why it's all the more odd that Lacey still lives at home in Radlett, Hertfordshire, with mum Bev, dad Les and her two sisters, Daisy, 19, and eight-year-old Lily. It's even more peculiar given that she bought her own property three years ago. She moved in but hated being home alone, and just two months later, she was back with her parents. "I thought it would be great to have my own flat, for two weeks I loved it and settled in with my chocolate Labrador, Dexter. But after a month or so I'd find myself coming home to this silent house. I had no one to talk to but the dog. I'd go around to my mum's every night for tea because I'm a terrible cook and a horribly fussy eater. I don't eat vegtables. I like chicken, but hate meat on the bone so Mum takes it off for me. "I missed being there, so I rented out my place and moved back. I had to have the box room as my sister had nabbed my bedroom, but I didn't mind - I just feel happier at home."