Inked Up
Hollyoaks beauty unrecognisable with huge snake tattoo 12 years after sexy calendar shoot
She's living a quieter, more private life these days as a female leadership coach and love mentor
HOLLYOAKS beauty Melissa Walton is unrecognisable with a huge snake tattoo 12 years after her sexy calendar shoot.
Despite her surprise overhaul, Melissa, 34, looks ever-gorgeous in posts shared to her 176k followers on Instagram.
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Following her massive success in the Channel 4 soap, she's living a quieter, more private life these days as a female leadership coach and love mentor.
The former actress married Ryan Wells, a Royal Navy Air Force pilot, in 2012 and they share a young son together, with a baby girl on the way.
In her latest video on the platform, Melissa is seen beaming with joy after using a pink-dyed cake for a gender reveal.
And, in another, she's seen cosying up to her partner in their new home of Austin, Texas.
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Melissa also revealed the reason for her stunning inking, saying it represents "transformation and reclaiming feminine power".
The serpent, she explained, reflects her journey through healing and personal growth, much like the snake shedding its skin to "embrace the new".
The Coventry-native trained at Bablake School and Stratford-upon-Avon College and had her first brush with fame appearing alongside Julie Walters in Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story.
She joined Hollyoaks Later in 2008, impressing fans with her dedication, even taking pole-dancing lessons for her character, Loretta Jones.
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After impressing producers with her performance, 18-year-old Melissa was promoted to the main show in 2009.
Loretta’s dark backstory, involving her being a former child killer, stirred controversy, and Walton exited the soap in 2010.
During her time on the show, she posed for the Hollyoaks Babes calendar and some other underwear shoots.
Beyond her breakout role, she's also appeared in Doctors and Coronation Street.
The fledgling actress first began struggling with an eating disorder at the age of 17 and previously told the she "immediately started comparing myself to the other girls" at her performing arts college in Stratford-upon-Avon.
But her soap role only exacerbated her disordered eating and Melissa became "obsessed with how I looked on TV" and would "agonise about my figure."
Since leaving the show, Melissa has campaigned to raise awareness for eating disorders and has trained as a health and eating psychology coach.
In 2016, she wrote her first book The Goddess Revolution to help other eating disorder sufferers using her personal experience.
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