- - 'Ted Lasso' actor Keeley Hazell talks topless photos, revenge porn and new perspective

Alyssa Goldberg, USA TODAYAugust 26, 2025 at 3:01 AM

NEW YORK — The cafe is tucked away on Mercer St., an intimate escape just steps from bustling SoHo streets and storefronts displaying luxury fashion. The bar is stocked with wine and coffee, the walls are lined with books and the air is filled with the aroma of fresh paperbacks. It’s the perfect setting to meet Keeley Hazell, whose debut book, “Everyone’s Seen My Tits: Stories and Reflections from an Unlikely Feminist,” was released Aug. 26.

A former Page 3 model, Hazell’s honest memoir divulges more than celebrity gossip or how she landed topless in “The Sun” at only 18 years old. Hazell, now 38, shows readers what the 2000s tabloids did not, boldly confronting her emotional turmoil in a way that can only be accomplished with the distance of years (and with “lots of therapy,” she says), from the humiliation of revenge porn to parental trauma, class struggles, sexuality and the experiences that prompted her “unlikely feminism.”

Keeley Rebecca Hazell is an English writer, actress, and former glamour model and Page 3 girl. 'Everyone's Seen My Tits' is her first book.

The provocative book title was born in her late 20s, and the hyperbole “encapsulates the feeling of being a teenager,” Hazell says. Her publisher expressed concerns about getting the title promoted on broadcast television but Hazell says there was “no other title.”

Rationally, Hazell knew that not everyone in the world had seen her topless, but in the early days of her career, she felt exposed and scrutinized in day-to-day life.

“It’s everyone around you, and that’s what matters when you’re young. When you’re in adolescence, you care what everybody thinks,” she says.

Her story parallels evolving conversations on OnlyFans, sex work and female empowerment — even akin to debates on whether Sabrina Carpenter is catering to the “male gaze.” Today, signs with the phrase “sex work is work” can be found at women’s marches and bedazzled T-shirts, and Carpenter’s provocateur status is praised by adoring fans. But when Hazell’s modeling career launched, she says the conversation was less nuanced.

“It is the assumption that somebody like myself, who has modeled in a hypersexualized way, is catered to the male gaze,” Hazell says. “18 years ago… it was like, ‘You're not a feminist if you're catering to the male gaze or partaking in these oppressive systems.’”

Hence, an “unlikely feminist” was born.

Keeley Hazell says ‘my story is a story of social mobility’

'Everyone's Seen My Tits: Stories and Reflections from an Unlikely Feminist,' a memoir by 'Ted Lasso' actress Keeley Hazell, was released via Grand Central Publishing on August 26.

In the book’s first chapter, Hazell recounts being asked by a journalist, “Are you a feminist?” Her response: “I’m not."

She understood that men and women were treated differently, and her girlfriends would talk about how “men seemed to have it easier.” But the word itself? “Feminist” wasn’t even in her vocabulary.

Hazell was raised in a poor, working-class family in Grove Park, a district of South East London. Her mother was a dinner lady, and her father was a window fitter; the couple separated when she was 13. Hazell “scrounged for chicken and chips money,” and in her memoir, recalls the first time she used her sexuality for monetary gain. At 13, she and a friend prompted a cab driver to masturbate in front of them before stealing his wallet and fleeing. Repulsed by the encounter, she never did it again.

But Hazell says the scene was integral to the book’s central story, which is fundamentally about class and social mobility, rather than feminism.

“In the UK, the class system is structured so differently from the US. We don’t have the American dream,” she says from the SoHo cafe.

For those from working-class backgrounds, the options were limited. Hazell struggled to find a job in a retail store and it took her mother four years to secure a job in a supermarket. Modeling became a means of advancement.

“I don't think my modeling is a feminist act at all. I think it's an act of social mobility and trying to better myself monetarily, in order to advance in life,” she explains.

In 2024, a report from the Sutton Trust found that while only 7% of people educated in the UK attend private schools, 35% of Bafta-nominated actors were privately educated. In 2019, the Sutton Trust also reported that those holding top jobs in British politics, the judiciary, media and business were five times more likely to have been to private school than the general population.

Before becoming a Page 3 model, Hazell knew the stereotypes that accompanied the lifestyle. Glamour models were designated as “dumb” or “fame-hungry.” But as she formed friendships with fellow models, her perception of the industry changed dramatically.

“You realize how much of this is bred out of coming from a lower socioeconomic background, and this is one of the ways to make money,” she tells USA TODAY.

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Keeley Hazell didn't want to talk about revenge porn, but she did so anyway

In 2007, Hazell was a victim of revenge porn after her ex-boyfriend, called “Theo” in the book, released their sex tape.

Hazell grappled with revisiting this. She understood that by talking about it, people would be reminded that the tape existed. For years, she’d been silent. Even having a private conversation about the experience would cause her to “burst out in tears.” She felt that people saw the incident as her fault, and speculated that she had facilitated it to advance her career.

“Why would I talk about that with anybody, when there’s no understanding of the violation that’s taken place?” she says.

But “to elicit any sort of change, you have to confront these things,” she adds.

Keeley’s openness about her trauma is part of a larger movement to destigmatize victims and demand accountability for image-based sexual abuse, which victims sometimes refer to as “digital rape” and a “violation of the body.” While anyone can be victimized, 90% of the victims of image-based sexual abuse are women.

While researching revenge porn, she traced it back to the 1800s, when men used to paint crude pictures of women on postcards to destroy their reputation.

“As time has evolved, men haven't gotten better. Laws come in, and they just find ways around it. Back in my era, you shared a video or a photo. Now, that’s a criminal offense,” she says. But AI created a new loophole: deepfakes, which are addressed in the US Take It Down Act, but still circulate on social media platforms like X.

“It's just like a continued evolution of men finding ways in which to shame and suppress women and ruin their lives. And it ruins their lives because it works,” Hazell says.

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Following the tape's release, she experienced a total shutdown of her sexuality.

"I didn't have sex with anybody for over a year and a half," she says. She decided to make a decision based on her mental health rather than monetary gain, and ended her glamour modeling career.

"It was like, there's no point in doing this and having this money if I'm going to want to jump out the window," she says. "I needed to reclaim my own sexuality so that I can understand it. It was the process of that reclaiming, and then healing."

‘Ted Lasso’ character Keeley and media misrepresentation

When Hazell was approached by Jason Sudeikis, the cocreator of “Ted Lasso” who is referred to only as “J” in her book, she says he wanted to dispel the stereotypes that had plagued her career.

“He was like, ‘I see you. The way you are in real life and how you're presented in the media are two very separate things,’” she recalls.

But the show’s character Keeley Jones, a model-turned-PR consultant for AFC Richmond, is like an “SNL version of me,” she says.

Originally, Hazell was meant to be cast as the fictional “Keeley,” but the role went to Juno Temple, who Hazell says comes from a “very privileged background” that contrasts her lived experiences.

“That was difficult for me,” she admits. “When it’s something that is integral to me and has my name, I don’t want it to be used in any sort of way unless it’s authentic.

“Where I feel somewhat cheated is that it becomes a representation of these things, but it doesn't actually bring about change,” she continues. “You're selling this idea and this concept that there's no evidence of in real life.”

British model Keeley Hazell arrives for the season three premiere of "Ted Lasso" at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles, California, on March 7, 2023. (Photo by Michael Tran / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)

In the book, she writes about this tension: “Keeley Jones defied the stereotype – proving that women can be multifaceted. I only imagine how wonderful it would’ve been to play that Keeley who breezes through life never stigmatized by her past.”

But she recognized that she didn’t have control over the show’s narrative, and it was happening “with or without her.” Acting in “Ted Lasso” as “Bex” contributed to her “complicated relationship with the show,” but allowed her to be present as the character “Keeley” came to life.

Keeley Hazell’s fan base is ‘very male,’ but the book is ‘for everyone’

Hazell wrote this memoir to understand her past, but the hope is that anyone reading “Everyone’s Seen My Tits” will “learn something, or be entertained,” she says.

“My fan base has always been very male,” she says. “And if we talk about revenge porn, these things are done by men to women.”

She wonders if her book will impact male readers: “If men can have a greater understanding, does that change things?”

Before launching her acting career, it was suggested that she change her name to distance herself from Page 3. But Hazell doesn’t want to hide from the assumptions people have about her, and “Everyone’s Seen My Tits” lays her past bare.

As her book concludes, she writes about the power in knowing yourself. In reclaiming your voice when others have taken it from you.

“I’ve reached a point now where I’m just owning it, embracing it, and I wouldn’t want to change it,” she says as we wrap up our conversation. “I regret a lot of things, but now I’m more conscious of the systemic class barriers that were in place. I’ve accepted regret as part of life, but also, I understand my choices more.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Ted Lasso' actor Keeley Hazell talks 'Everyone’s Seen My Tits' book

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