Loaded magazine has announced it’s set to make a comeback in digital form – nine years after it went out of print.

The controversial lads’ mag was known for its non-PC humour and scantily clad female celebrity cover stars, such as Elizabeth Hurley and Sophie Anderton.

But as the British magazine, which had the strapline ‘for men who should know better’, marks 30 years since it was first published with ‘a digital rebellion’ via the website loadedworld.com, what happened to the lads’ mags glamorous pin-ups. 

From Cat Deeley, Louise Redknapp and Nell McAndrew to Michelle Marsh, Gail Porter and Abi Titmuss, we take a look at where the cover stars of the ’90s and noughties are now… 

GAIL PORTER 

At her peak she was arguably one of the most recognisable presenters on TV, but Gail Porter has said her undeniable popularity didn’t get her rich. 

The Scottish star became a household name thanks to regular appearances on The Big Breakfast, The Movie Chart Show, VH1 and BBC music show Top Of The Pops.  

In 1999, her popularity – boosted by modelling jobs with lads mags like Loaded – led to a nude photograph of Porter being projected on the Houses of Parliament without her consent when she was 28, as a publicity stunt for FHM’s ‘sexiest woman’.

But the former pin-up, now 52, has previously insisted she earned little money during the early years of her mainstream career, citing the amount she received per episode on Top Of The Pops as one of her lowest earners. 

She told The Telegraph: ‘I think £500, and then you’ve got 20 per cent to your agent, then you’ve got to pay your rent. All the front covers of magazines, I never got paid for any of them.’ 

Weighing up her biggest payday, Porter says a voiceover for a Sainsbury’s commercial provided a moderate income.   

‘It was a few hundred quid a week, and you can’t complain about that,’ she recalled. ‘But other than that, I can’t remember well-paid jobs.’ 

Porter previously admitted she wasn’t paid for her magazine work, at a time when lads were at their commercial peak. 

She told the Daily Star: ‘I never got paid for anything that I did – I never got paid for FHM, GQ, or a lot of the magazines that I did.

‘Some of the others may have got paid, but I never did and I was quite vulnerable at the time. They were saying ‘This is going to be great for your career, it will be great fun, and think of the pics you can give your kids when you’re older.”

Porter recently announced she would headline a series of stand-up comedy shows dealing with her alopecia, mental health struggles and being homeless.

The Scottish TV presenter will launch her stand-up career at the Edinburgh Assembly Rooms from August 2-28 as well as shows around the UK.

Her routine will talk about how she went from being a children’s TV presenter to posing nude and seeing her naked image beamed onto the Houses of Parliament to being sectioned, diagnosed as bipolar and sleeping rough.

Gail, once listed by FHM among the world’s sexiest women, said: ‘I’m super-excited to be coming to Edinburgh. I’ll be doing stand-up seven-nights-a-week.

‘I don’t know if it’s a mid-life thing or whatever but I got offered it and I thought, why not? I’ll be doing a few little gigs around the country to trial the material before that. I’ve always wanted to do it and I’ve been writing a lot.’

She added ‘I think when you have gone through pretty tough times and you can turn it into humour, other people can relate. The material will be about my life.

‘I take things that happened that were pretty bad and talk about it in a way that is pretty funny and that I hope can help people.’

ABI TITMUSS

During the noughties, Abi Titmuss was one of the most recognisable faces in the media thanks to her lads’ mag photoshoots and high profile relationship.

The former nurse, now 48, from Newark-on-Trent, first started dominating headlines when she became the girlfriend of TV presenter John Leslie, 59, who she met in a bar in Fulham on April 10, 1999.

But Abi, who was once voted the 7th sexiest woman in the world, suffered embarrassment when a sex tape she made with John and an aspiring female model was released to the public.  

After going their separate ways around 2004, Abi then went on to work as a roving reporter for Richard and Judy, before appearing in a selection of reality shows – including Hell’s Kitchen, Celebrity Love Island and Come Dine With Me.

But fast forward two decades and Abi is now a wife and mother-of-one, who has carved out a successful acting career in the US after battling depression.

Speaking about being an overnight sensation – featuring on the front page of various lads’ magazines, including Nuts, Loaded and FHM – to FEMAIL back in 2012, she said: ‘I didn’t think I deserved the attention, so the more money I earned, the worse I felt. 

‘I could make £30,000 for a shoot but I knew how third-rate I was. I could feel my lack of discernible talent as though I was wearing it.’ 

She later told the publication: ‘Suddenly I was being offered a lot of money to do shoots. I thought I could handle it. But I couldn’t. 

‘They created this caricature of a person that I didn’t recognise. I was always the same Abigail inside. I studied Latin at school, I’m from a good family. But the image that was created was nonsense.’ 

And speaking of when the sex tape made with John and an aspiring female model was shared to the public, Abi later told the Daily Star: ‘I was devastated by the violation. It affected me very badly. I guess there was something accessible about me.’  

But in the mid-noughties, the former lads’ mag favourite decided to focus on her acting career and attended the Central School of Speech and Drama. 

A short stint in theatre beckoned, where Abi bagged a Fringe Report award for Best West End Debut in Two Way Mirror, before going on to play Lady Macbeth in Lowestoft.

After starring in Hotel Babylon and then Casualty in 2012, she fled to the States, changed her name to Abigail Evelyn, and in 2015 landed the role of Nurse Jackie in long running soap opera Days Of Our Lives.  

It was there that she met husband Ari Welkom, an American rock star and actor, who rose to stardom in 2005 following his appearance in Brick, alongside Joseph-Gordon Levitt. 

Abi previously admitted that the lights of fame drove her into a suicidal depression that took years of therapy and a move to the other side of the Atlantic to break. 

Speaking of whether she actually considered killing herself, Abi told Mail Online in 2015: ‘Yes, many times. It took me years of therapy to deal with the depression. It was a traumatic experience. I don’t think it will ever go away.’ 

Abi and Ari tied the knot in May 2017, and the media learned she was pregnant in January 2018, when the couple were spotted leaving the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles.

Following their exchange of vows, the blushing bride confessed to Hello! magazine that she was aware of the baby’s presence during their big day.

NELL MCANDREW 

The glamour model almost made it all the way in the first ever series of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! back in 2002 when she came fourth of the show.

Nell first appeared on TV as a hostess on the gameshow Man O Man before going on to work as a magazine model and Marilyn Monroe lookalike.

However nowadays the star has left her lads’ mags days behind and dedicates her life to fitness.

With her Instagram boasting a series of workouts, the star is now focused on being fit at 50 as she runs marathons and hits the weights section. 

While Nell has always been sporty, she only took up running in her thirties, with her motivation to raise money for charity as well as get fit.

At the London Marathon in 2012, the athlete ran a personal best of two hours, 54 minutes and 39 seconds.

CAT DEELEY

Cat Deeley ‘s career seems to be on an unstoppable upwards trajectory as she nears the big 5-0 – after recently becoming a permanent presenter on This Morning.

First finding fame more than 25 years ago, the now 47-year-old presenter, actress and model was part of a much-loved trio with Ant and Dec on SM:TV Live on ITV and also hosted its spin-off pop music show CD:UK.

Although she’d already worked as a model and appeared on FHM’s cover in July 1998 after being voted the seventh sexiest woman in the UK.

Deeley, who was born in West Bromwich in 1976, began her career as a model in her teenage years before hosting MTV chart show Hitlist UK with Edith Bowman and then joining SM:TV from 1998.

She spent four years hosting the show alongside Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, and it featured a fan-favourite comedy segment called Chums that parodied Friends.

After rising to fame on SM:TV, Deeley had various other TV credits such as Fame Academy, which she presented in 2002 with Patrick Kielty – whom she later married in 2012.

She also presented Stars In Their Eyes between 2003 and 2006 and hosted the Brit Awards in 2004 when she famously arrived at Earl’s Court in London on top of a champagne bottle wearing suspenders and fishnets.

In 2006 she moved stateside to pursue a presenting career in the US, and started hosting entertainment show So You Think You Can Dance? in its second series, presenting every episode since.

Other famous credits including appearing as herself in Peter Kay’s Britain’s Got the Pop Factor, Life’s Too Short and House of Lies.

MICHELLE MARSH

Michelle Marsh became a regular in lads’ mags including Playboy, Loaded, Maxim and Nuts, and was famed for her curvaceous figure.

In 2006, she tried to launch a pop music career with her debut single ‘I Don’t Do’ – but it only reached 89 in the charts.

She went on to perform on The X Factor’s Battle of the Stars in 2008, and has also featured on programmes including The Weakest Link, Celebrity Big Brother and Celebrity Four Weddings.

But the former glamour model largely stepped away from the limelight after marrying Scottish footballer Will Haining in 2007, and welcoming three children together, reported The Sun. 

Michelle opened a children’s boutique store, TillyFlops, in Oldham, Manchester, in 2012.

In 2022, she opened up on her daughter Maddison’s traumatic battle with a rare disease that leaves her in constant agony.

The former model’s daughter suffers with a chronic nerve disease called complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), which leaves people in extreme discomfort that does not ease and which has no known cure. 

Speaking in an interview, the ex glamour model detailed her daughter’s pain which would lead her to ‘scream through the night in pain’, with things so bad that the teen had begged to have her leg amputated.

Maddison, who was a keen dancer and skateboarder, first began showing symptoms back in March 2021, complaining that her leg felt like it was ‘was on fire’, reports The Sun.

At the time, Michelle brushed off her daughter’s claims, until the teen began limping in pain. 

She explained to the publication: ‘At first we kind of brushed it off, but as the week went on Maddison started to limp going to school. On the Friday she phoned me crying, saying, ‘I’m in agony’. She couldn’t walk. She was scared’.

After weeks of tests and no closer to the truth, Maddison had to endure excruciating pain, which left her unable to sleep.

However, a year later, Maddison’s agony was still not over as the teen’s right leg went numb and paralyzed in January, while her left leg has tremors. 

The Sun reports that Maddison’s condition has now spread to her organs and leaves her struggling to eat, while medics have also diagnosed Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), in which brain signals have difficulty reaching the body.

Though Maddison receives ‘intensive treatment’ from the NHS, Michelle and husband Wil are keen for their daughter to have specialist treatment including  occupational therapy and hydrotherapy, while they want her to also have a private physio.

Michelle, who was a popular Page 3 model in the 2000s and sportsman Will, revealed they had been fundraising.

Michelle regularly graced Page 3 of tabloid newspapers, having shot to fame age just 18 after coming second in The Sun’s ‘National Cleavage Week’ contest in 2001 before going on to win Daily Star’s ‘Search for a Babe’ the following year.

She went on to have an extensive glamour modelling career, posing for lads mags including Nuts, Maxim and Zoo, while she was often paired up with fellow glamour model Lucy Pinder for racy shoots.

DENISE VAN OUTEN  

Denise Van Outen, 49, started acting as a teenager, appearing in shows including The Bill.

However, her break came when she joined The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 in September 1996. First appearing as a weathergirl, Van Outen became a main presenter in 1997.

When Johnny Vaughn stepped in to cover for Rick Adams in June 1997 and presented alongside Van Outen, their on-screen chemistry led to the pair being chosen as permanent presenters.

While her star was rising thanks to The Big Breakfast job, Van Outen graced the covers of several men’s magazines, including FHM in 1997 and Esquire in 1998. In 2005 she was pictured on the cover of Arena magazine wearing black lingerie.

In 2021, she told The Sun that she has ‘no regrets’ about posing on the front of men’s magazines in the 90s. She added that she looks back on the photoshoots with fond memories and keeps the magazines in a box in her attic.

While she continued presenting and acting, Van Outen went on to star in a number of reality TV shows. In 2012, she was runner-up in the 10th series of Strictly Come Dancing and in 2020 she signed up to appear in the thirteenth series of Dancing On Ice.

Van Outen, who had appeared in the West End in the noughites, returned to music three years ago. She released a charity cover of the song ‘On My Own’ from hit musical Les Miserables.

In 2023, she released the charity single ‘That’s What Friends Are For’ with former Blue singer Duncan James.

SOPHIE ANDERTON 

British model Sophie Anderton, 47, got her break in 1996 when she appeared in the controversial Gossard Wonderbra ‘Girl in the grass’ campaign.

Thanks to the strapline ‘Who said a woman couldn’t get pleasure from something soft?’, hundreds of people complained to the Advertising Standards Authority.

Given that Anderton started off modelling bras, it isn’t surprising that the men’s magazines soon came calling.

In August 1996, Anderton appeared on the cover of Maxim in navy silk lingerie. Soon after, in October 1996, she graced the cover of GQ wearing a sheer bra with the headline: BraVO: We’ve got the girl without the Gossard.

Anderton went on to take part in the fourth series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!

In August 2013, Anderton entered the Celebrity Big Brother house for the twelfth series. There, she opened up about her previous struggles with substance abuse.

The Love Island star once admitted she was ‘lucky to survive’ her own addiction problems, on which she apparently ‘blew £10 million over 13 years’, and confided to friends that she was self-harming and had considered ‘ending it all’.

Yet speaking to The Daily Mail in 2015, Sophie dismissed all this as ‘light years from where I am now’. 

Anderton married Count Kazimierz Balinski-Jundzill in 2021 and is today focused on her health and wellness.

ELIZABETH HURLEY 

Elizabeth Hurley was the original Loaded poster girl, gracing their first-ever cover when it launched in 1994.

James Brown, who founded the 90s lads mag, said of appointing Hurley as cover girl in an article for the London Evening Standard: ‘The industry wisdom was that ‘men don’t read lifestyle magazines like women do’, but it got the green light and my boss said: ‘you’ve got everything men like except women’.

‘So we ran two large photos of an unknown actress called Elizabeth Hurley in her lingerie. Right time, right place, for us and Liz.’

Of course, Hurley, 58, was already an actress on her way up, her popularity skyrocketing after appearing as Vanessa Kensington in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in 1997 and then alongside Brandon Fraser in Bedazzled in 2000 as the Devil dressed in a skin-tight red jumpsuit.

The British actress also made headlines thanks to her high-profile relationship with Hugh Grant – who could forget that safety pin dress the actress wore on the red carpet for the Four Weddings and A Funeral premiere in 1994? 

It might have been Hugh’s night, but she undoubtedly stole the show.

The relationship with Hugh didn’t last, with the pair parting ways in 2000. But Liz’s profile continued to grow until she was one of the most recognisable faces in the world.

As well as being an actress and model, Hurley is also a successful bikini designer and passionate farmer, having recently converted her 400-acre farm in Gloucestershire to organic status.

Hurley also stars in new film Strictly Confidential – a crime drama that’s written and directed by her son, Damian. 

When it came to choosing the cover girl for Loaded’s comeback digital issue, the Liz Hurley was a natural choice. 

LOUISE REDKNAPP

Louise Redknapp was a favourite on the lads’ mag circuit, having graced the cover of Loaded, FHM and GQ and being deemed FHM’s Sexiest Woman Of The Decade in 2004.

The singer was particularly popular with the readers of FHM, with a place in the magazine’s famous 100 Sexiest Women poll every year it ran from 1996 to 2017.

Redknapp, 49, rose to fame as part of R&B band Eternal before going solo in 1995. After a successful solo career, Redknapp put her singing on hold to focus on her family life with her former husband Jamie Redknapp and their two sons Charley and Beau.

The Naked singer came back into the public eye when she competed in BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2016, reaching the final alongside dance partner Kevin Clifton.

Redknapp remains proud of her lads’ mag era but admits that she’s sometimes ’embarrassed’ about that period in her career.

She told Women’s Health: ‘Some women may say it was sexist, but I would say it just really celebrated women. I admit though, I used to get a bit embarrassed and think, ‘Oh no, that wasn’t just what I was about’.’

The former singer and model has now moved away from the entertainment industry and has launched a new beauty business called Nakd Beauty, selling wholesale makeup and cosmetics. 

DANNIELLA WESTBROOK 

Danniella Westbrook, 50, started modelling and acting from a young age, attending the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School from the age of eight.

It didn’t take long for Westbrook to bag a role in EastEnders – she made her first appearance as Sam Mitchell at the age of 16. She decided to leave the show in 1993 but was brought back into the fold as Sam in 1999.

In 1996, a 23-year-old Westbrook appeared on the cover of men’s magazine Loaded wearing a sheer baby doll dress and sucking a lollipop. In an interview she opened up about her drug use, dating and her success as a soap actress.

Like many of her contemporaries, Westbrook went on to appear in a number of reality TV shows.

In 2003 she appeared in the second series of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!. Despite being popular, she decided to leave the show after nine days, explaining that she missed her children and wasn’t mentally prepared for the challenge.

She appeared on The Weakest Link, winning over £5,000 for charity, and then the fifth series of Dancing On Ice in 2010. Six years later she joined Celebrity Big Brother, finishing in fifth place.

In 2019, after appearing on The Jeremy Kyle Show to talk about her cocaine addiction, she entered a rehab facility, which she credits with saving her life.

Since February 2019, Westbrook has worked as a motivational speaker, addressing international crowds.