MY PAP PICS: CHARLIE BROOKS - 'GETTING PREGNANT WAS A BIG SURPRISE'

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Jun 13, 2004 | by Sam Mann

Best mate

That's my best friend Kate on my back. We've been best friends for years, and we lived together in digs while we were drama students. This picture was taken in Wales when we were visiting my dad for the weekend. The boy in the background is the son of a long-time family friend - he's called

Harry

Potter.

Our first pap snap

This was taken through the window of lingerie shop Agent Provocateur. It was the first time I'd been papped and it was the first shot of my fiance, Tony Truman, and I in the papers. We were buying some naughty underwear. Tony and I are so in love, he's the best man in the world. We've been together for two years now, and our first baby is due in December, which was a big but lovely surprise. I couldn't be happier.

Mum's the word

That's my gorgeous mother, pulling a funny face. She's my best friend. I know it sounds cheesy, but we couldn't be closer. She's such a top mum, I love her so much. We go out everywhere together - she even comes to parties with me.

My Babs and baps pic

Barbara Windsor is admiring my breasts here. I'm nice and tanned, I must have just got back from holiday. I'd just had my highlights done too, and I think I'd won an award for 'Best TV Bitch'. I really missed Barbara when she left EastEnders, she's such a considerate woman. I did a play last summer and she sent me a lovely bouquet of flowers.

Enders friends

This is me with Gary Beadle and Lucy Speed after the FHM 100 Sexiest Women party last year. They were my two best friends at EastEnders. I miss working with them, but I still see them and I speak to Lucy nearly every day. I paid an absolute fortune for those boots. I love them and they got really slated in the press, as does everything I wear.

Beach party

I love this picture! We're in Puerto Banus in Marbella. Tony's an event organiser and threw a party out there. I was filming EastEnders that night, so I flew out as soon as I'd finished shooting and got to the party at 2am. This was taken the next day on the beach. From left to right, there's former Corrie star Chris Bisson (one of our good friends, even though I once snogged him), Tony and I, Tony's best man to be and his girlfriend Tash, and my friend Gemma. At 7pm that night I flew back to Gatwick, met 20 members of my family and flew to Mexico. How jet set am I?

All dressed up

This is a lovely picture of me with Natalie Cassidy who plays Sonia in EastEnders. She was such a great friend to me when I joined the show. It was my very first Soap Awards and Natalie had come over to mine earlier so we could get glammed-up together. Check out my pink hair extensions! I had those shoes made in a little shop in North London - they cost an absolute fortune. I don't know what I was thinking at the time. I wanted them to look like the ones Victoria Beckham wore at her wedding, but they don't. The straps are so uneven.

Here, Kate and I were training for the London Marathon. Kate's sister died of cancer last July after being ill for five years. We wanted to raise money for Marie Curie because the nurses who looked after her did such a great job.