In 1999, at the age of 16, Melbourne-based aspiring actress Holly Valance (born Holly Vukadinović) landed a life-changing role on the soap Neighbours, playing Felicity ‘Flick’ Scully.
She became a household name, and quit the show a few years later to pursue her music career – releasing the successful 2002 single Kiss Kiss, an English language cover version of Turkish singer Tarkan’s Şımarık.
Watch the video above.
Two albums later, Valance gave up on music and decided to move to the US to pursue her acting career there. But by 2011, she had basically gone off the radar.
After having moved to London, she’s well and truly burst back into the spotlight – and it appears her love life has also undergone a notable reshuffle of late.
Rumours have long swirled regarding her split from British billionaire Nick Candy last year, and now reports have emerged that she’s formed a new connection with an unlikely beau.
In an unexpected turn of events, Valance has also drawn attention for her increasingly right-wing views in recent years.
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In 2024, she gave an extremely rare interview at a conservative political event PopCon in London, weighing into British politics and declaring “leftie” ideas were “crap”.
“Everyone starts off as a leftie and then wakes up at some point after you start making money, working, trying to run a business, trying to buy a home and then realise what crap ideas they all are. And then you go to the right,” she said.
So, what happened to the actress, singer and model in those years between, and what does her life look like now? Let’s find out.
A Neighbourly beginning
Valance rose to fame playing Flick in Neighbours in 1999.
She left the soap in 2002, but made a final cameo appearance in 2005. She filmed a total of 330 episodes for Neighbours.
After moving overseas, the actress had a recurring role in Prison Break during its first and second seasons. Between 2004 until 2010 she starred in episodes of CSI: Miami, Entourage, CSI: NY, Moonlight, Shark, Valentine and Agatha Christie’s Marple.
Valance was a contestant in Season 9 of the British reality show Strictly Come Dancing, which aired in 2011. Between 2013 and 2014, she was a judge and mentor on Shopaholic Showdown.
Valance has also starred in films including DOA: Dead or Alive (2006), Pledge This! (2006), Taken (2008), Kambakkht Ishq (2009), Luster (2010), Surviving Georgia (2011), Big Mamma’s Boy (2011) and Red Herring (2015) – her last appearance on screen until 2022.
On July 28, 2022 Valance reprised her role in the final episode of Neighbours alongside Natalie Imbruglia. The pair filmed their scene in the UK.
A look inside Holly Valance’s glamorous life in the UK
In a scene, their respective characters Felicity “Flick” Scully and Beth Brennan randomly ran into each other on a park bench and got acquainted, before sending their love to the show’s Ramsay Street via video call.
From the screen to the charts
After quitting Neighbours, the then-18-year-old actress decided to focus on her music. She moved to the UK and was signed to London Records. She went on to release two albums, four singles and four music videos.
Kiss Kiss, Down Boy and Naughty Girl were her singles from the 2002 album Footprints.
A year later she released the single State of Mind, followed by her second album of the same name.
She also released music videos for four of her songs: Kiss Kiss, Down Boy, Naughty Girl and State of Mind.
When she was 21, Valance put her focus back on film and television and moved to Los Angeles, where she lived for eight years.
Love life
After acting in the US, Valance returned to the UK in 2009 and had a brief relationship with synth-pop musician Vince Frank. They met when she appeared in his music video Confusion Girl, but the romance was short-lived.
Frank opened up about the split while backstage at a festival in 2009.
“One minute she’d be all into me, the next she wouldn’t even hold my hand,” he said.
“Then she sent me [an] email saying, “I really hope you’re with other girls now and you’re moving on. I hope you’re really happy because I’m really happy.”
Eventually, Valance settled down, marrying Nick Candy – a billionaire English property developer – in 2012.
They married in Beverly Hills alongside 300 of their family and friends.
She opened up about their marriage in an episode of the podcast Made by Mammas.
“He worked on Christmas Day and even the day we practised our vows with the priest he took a call in the middle of it,” she said, noting how busy Candy’s job keeps him.
“He was like: ‘Got to take this, sorry guys!’ I was like, ‘We’re at the altar practising our vows!’ So that’s who I married, I know that.”
Valance and Candy welcomed their first child, a daughter named Luka Violet Toni Candy, in November 2013. They had a second daughter, Nova Skye Coco Candy, in September 2017.
In June 2025, The Sun reported the couple had split after 12 years of marriage.
Holly Valance’s unexpected snap with Neighbours co-star
“This has been a very difficult period for both Nick and Holly, and they are keeping things private out of respect for their family,” a source described as a “family friend” was quoted as telling the publication.
“The joint parenting of their two amazing daughters remains their top priority. They’ve had to juggle a demanding lifestyle.
“Between family, public life, and Nick’s intense work commitments, it’s been a tough balance.
And in an unexpected move, the most recent development has seen Valance out and about with a former family bodyguard – who now appears to have been promoted to boyfriend status.
The Sun reported Valance and 34-year-old Welsh native Grant Gale appeared cosy during a recent London outing, holding hands and engaging in lively conversation.
In images obtained by the outlet, the pair were seen cosying up on a park bench in a particularly posh suburb of West London, with the ex-Military man’s arm draped across Valance’s shoulders.
At another stage during the outing, they were also spotted sharing a kiss.
“They looked really happy and were chatting and joking a lot and being affectionate,” one insider told The Sun. “Holly was smiling and laughing and made sure she gave him a kiss as they got up.”
“There were lots of people around and they didn’t care who saw them. He looked like he was being quite protective of her.”
The Sun reported that Gale worked as a bodyguard at Valance’s family home in Chelsea, which she had previously shared with Candy.
The billionaire property developer reportedly sold their mansion just two weeks ago for over $510 million, in what is said to be the most expensive house sale in the UK.
The sale of the property comes almost 10 months after Valance and Candy ended their 13-year marriage.
Famous family
As well as having a sister named Coco Valance, the actress has a half-sister from her father’s second marriage.
Like her big sis, actress and model Olympia Valance starred in Neighbours, from 2014 until 2018.
She also had a main role in the show Playing For Keeps.
The pair posed for a photo in Greece on July 28, 2022, where Olympia was on her honeymoon with AFL Essendon player Thomas Bellchambers.
Holly had missed her sister’s wedding in Victoria, due to getting Covid-19 before making the trip Down Under, she revealed in a TV interview.
”I could barely walk that day and literally cancelled my flight three hours before. It was a bit devastating,” she said.
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