This British actress turned model is best known for her roles in Austin Powers, Bedazzled, a brief stint on Gossip Girl and now starring on the new television series, The Royals. Elizabeth Hurley rose to fame after a long relationship with A-list actor, Hugh Grant. In the beginning, her personal life seemed to garner more attention than her professional life, but today, Elizabeth is famous in her own right. Now detached from Grant, she’s managed to maintain her status in Hollywood and is now recognized for acting, modelling, and being a cancer research advocate. The beautiful actress has brought a whole new term to the definition of aging gracefully, and in honor of her upcoming 51st birthday, here’s 10 things you probably didn’t know about Elizabeth Hurley!
10. Childhood
Born on June 10, 1965 in Hampshire, England, Elizabeth’s full name is Elizabeth Jane Hurley. Growing up, her family had to move around a lot because her father Roy was an Army major whereas her mother, Angela, was a music teacher. She has an older sister named Kate and a younger brother named Michael. When she was a little girl she was more interested in dance than anything else. Elizabeth took ballet classes and studied dance and theater at the London Studio Centre. She started a dance troupe called Vile Bodies. But Elizabeth wasn’t always the poised, chic woman she is now. When she was little, she mostly associated with punk fashion, dying her hair pink and sporting a pierced nose. “When I was 16 — this was about 1981, 1982 — the thing to be in Basingstoke, the suburb I grew up in, was punk,” she once said in an interview.