Samantha Karen “Sam” Fox (born April 15, 1966 in Mile End, London) is an English former glamour model and dance-pop singer.
Background
As the eldest daughter of the late Patrick John Fox and Carole Ann Wilken, Samantha Karen Fox came from a family of market traders in the East End of London. She has a sister, Vanessa, who is six years younger, and a half-sister, Frederica, from her father’s second marriage.
Personal life
Fox was twice linked to Australian con man Peter Foster. They dated in 1986-87 and then, after a seven year separation, they reunited in 1994 for a year. They were at one time reportedly engaged to be married. During this time she and Peter decided to adopt a young Australian boy named Simon. Tragedy struck when Simon accidentally ingested a bottle of alcohol and was then rendered comatose. Fox described Foster as “the love of my life”. She has also been in relationships with Paul Stanley, the singer and rhythm guitarist for the band KISS.
In 1994, it was reported that Fox had become a born-again Christian. That year, she played at the Christian arts festival Greenbelt. When queried about how she could reconcile topless modeling with her Christian beliefs, she said:
“Easily. God gave me my body. I know it has made many people happy. There is no conflict there. I don’t and have never promoted pornography. I’m not a born-again Christian because I have always been one. I am doing what God wants me to do. My prayer each night is: “Let me go my way and make people happy. Let me do the right thing.” ”
Rumors regarding Fox’s sexual orientation began to surface in 1999 when she judged a lesbian beauty pageant, and many people said they believed that the woman she lived with at the time, Australian Cris Bonacci, formerly guitarist with Girlschool, was more than just her manager.
In February 2003, she made a statement about her personal life:
“But I can’t keep saying, “Maybe”, or denying it. It’s time to let people know where my heart is. People keep trying to say I’m a lesbian. I don’t know what I am. All I know is that I’m in love with Myra [Stratton, her manager]. I love her completely and want to spend the rest of my life with her. ”
Fox participated in the television show “Wife Swap” with her partner.
Sidelines
In 1986 Fox was featured in a strip poker game (Samantha Fox Strip Poker) for Commodore Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, MSX, BBC Micro, and Amstrad CPC.
In 1989, Fox co-presented the BRIT Awards with Mick Fleetwood, which became notorious for turning into a shambles; Fox has asserted in interviews since that the autocue did not work properly that night, leading to utter chaos during the show’s live TV broadcast. She spent a year in New York presenting pop promo videos for MTV, and she made other attempts at TV presenting, including an interview with Rolf Harris, which was ill-fated even before it started as Fox referred to her interviewee as “Ralph” on several occasions. She appeared on the sitcom Charles In Charge in 1990 where she played the role of “Samantha Steele”, a fictional rock star whose agent pushes her to romance Charles Scott Baio in order to get the paparazzi to print it in the tabloids. In the story line, it was done for career publicity reasons since people seem to enjoy some controversy. She also appeared in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for Spring Break, where she sang her various then current hits to thousands of college students.
Fox’s career went quiet as she grew older and she was not commercially successful in her singing. However, this has not stopped her working. In 2003, she appeared in (”reality television”) show The Club, competing against Richard Blackwood and Dean Gaffney by trying to run the most successful bar in The Club, which was full of celebrity guests such as Jordan. In August 2004, Fox was featured in a music video with Swedish music artist Günther in the song “Touch Me” (a remix of her earlier version). The album, Pleasureman, on which this version of “Touch Me” is featured was released in the US on Rhino Records in 2006. The single spent several weeks at #1 on the Swedish Chart.
In 2008, Fox and her partner Myra took part in Celebrity Wife Swap, exchanging with Freddie Starr and his wife Donna.
She attended St Thomas More RC School, Haringey, and took a keen interest in the theatre from an early age. She first appeared on a theatre stage at the age of three, and was enrolled in the Anna Scher Theatre School from the age of 5. Her first television appearance came in 1976, at the age of 10, in a BBC play entitled No Way Out. Following on from this, she started at the Judi Dench Mountview Theatre School, near her home in Crouch End, at the age of 11.
Interested in music from an early age, she formed her first band at the age of 14. Her first record deal came a year later, with Lamborghini Records. However, both her theatre and music careers went on hold when her modelling career took off.
Charitable activity
Samantha Fox has donated her favourite bra to a charity auction which will see fans able to buy a piece of celebrity clothing. Sense’s Strip It Off three-day auction will begin on March 4th and will see members of the public bidding for stars’ garments in order to raise money for the deafblind charity.
