When Abi Titmuss clapped eyes on TV presenter John Leslie in a bar in Fulham, London, in 1999, she had no idea how life-changing that moment would be.
Working as a staff nurse at London's University College Hospital, the pretty 23 year old fell hard for the This Morning star, and was unwittingly catapulted to fame when she supported him thorough his indecent assault case which was thrown out by the court in 2003.
The prosecution said it had "come into possession of further material that has led to the charges against the defendant being reviewed" and offered no evidence against him with regards to two counts of indecent assault on a woman at his home in May 1997.
"The prosecution gladly acknowledges that he will leave this court without a stain on his character from this investigation," the crown prosecution service lawyer said.
The couple split soon after, and with interest in Abi at its peak, she quit nursing and landed a job as a roving reporter for Richard & Judy - only to lose it months later when a stolen tape showed her engaging in group sex .
“I was devastated by the violation,” Abi latertold the Daily Star. “It affected me very badly. I guess there was something accessible about me.”
But her career was far from over, and in 2004 and 2005 she appeared on no less than 38 front pages of the lads' mags, commanding fees of up to £30,000 per shoot, and was named FHM's 7th Sexiest Woman in the World.
She presented for porn channel Television X; wrote a book alongside Jayne Lockwood, called Ten Fantasies , detailing her 'ten most secret sexual fantasies' and took up poker, earning sponsorship from Ladbrokes for the 2005 Ladbrokes Poker European Ladies Championship.
The Nottinghamshire-born star was flown around the world on private jets and scored tickets to all the hottest parties, but the flash life of excess began to take its toll.
“Financially I did very well but it came at a great emotional cost. I had very low self-esteem because I didn’t understand why it had happened to me and I didn’t think I deserved any of it," she previously told The Sun.
“I started getting my self-esteem from the camera lens and that is a dangerous place to be. If I was not on the front page I would worry.
“I was self-medicating with drink, drugs, shopping, food, relationships – you name it. I was going out every night… you enter a twilight zone.”
Then in 2006, Abi, who also dated David Walliams, suffered a breakdown and was plagued by suicidal thoughts.
In her 2008 autobiography the now 44 year old wrote: “My life is empty. It’s like there’s a gaping void inside me that I have to fill. I discovered there are various means of doing this – food, drink and men.
“But the high is transient and I am always left feeling worse than when I started. Deeply, deeply unhappy.”
Determined to get better, she quit drinking and entered therapy before turning her back on glamour modelling and rebranding as a serious actress.
After a successful theatre debut in a play called Two Way Mirror, she won a Fringe Report award for Best West End Debut and went on to play Lady Macbeth in Lowestoft.
She dropped 'Titmuss' from her name, calling herself Abi Evelyn instead, and quit the UK in 2014 to reinvent herself in Los Angeles.
There, she landed a part as Nurse Jackie in Days of Our Lives and met her actor husband Ari Welkom.
The couple tied the knot in May 2017 when Abi was 21 weeks pregnant with their first child, and she told Loose Women it happened just the way she'd hoped.
"I met Ari when I was 38 and got pregnant naturally at 40," she shared.
"It took six months to get pregnant and I ended up pregnant on our wedding day which is what we wanted. I felt the baby moving as I walked down the aisle. But I wasn't showing too much!"
As for her husband, Abi admitted the best thing is that he doesn't judge her for her past.
She explained: “It was a fresh slate. I got off the plane and God was like, ‘Get on with it. He’s here.’ We are very happy.
“I wanted to meet somebody who didn’t know anything about me so I would know 100 per cent in my heart this person liked me for me and didn’t have any judgement," the environmental campaigner said.
“I knew when he looked at me he was seeing a complete stranger he didn’t know anything about.
“I’m able to be who I really am. I had a crazy couple of years when I was modelling. I had fun and went nuts.
“I made those 20-something mistakes in the public eye and I did a lot of growing up. Now I know when I go into an audition over here they are not judging me except for what they see on my resumé.
“To turn it around and to really believe in myself, that’s amazing. I love the careers of Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. To follow in their footsteps would be incredible.”
But while Abi has achieved everything she dreamed of and more, if she had the chance to go back in time, she would have made a very different decision that night in Fulham.
“I did not talk to John because he was famous. But I talked to John because I fancied him and he seemed very nice to start with," she told The Sun.
“It was a Sliding Doors moment, where someone’s life can go one way or another. If I had not gone with John I would have avoided all the madness that followed.