Abi Titmuss: I built a property portfolio as a glamour model but now I want to be a serious actress

Using her paycheques from risqué shoots in lad's mags and page 3 spreads, the 32-year-old has already bought four homes in the capital, worth at least £2million.

Now she has money in the bank and a property collection, Titmuss is now free to work towards her goal of becoming a "serious" actress after complaining modelling "numbed" her brain.

Scroll down for more...

After years on the glamour circuit, Titmuss is dumping the hair extensions and fake tan for good so she can carve her name in lights in the West End.

Titmuss quit nursing in 2004 after appearing in a sex tape with ex-boyfriend John Leslie and became a regular feature in tabloid magazines and lads' mags.

As well as writing a sex column for FHM magazine and book entitled Ten Fantasies, Titmuss appeared on reality TV shows Hell's Kitchen, Celebrity Love Island and Deadline.

Despite her sex-themed employment over the last few years, Titmuss insists her raunchy image is a thing of the past.

Titmuss is currently starring in black comedy Fat Christ at the King's Head Theatre in Islington and has been cast in upcoming films Do Elephants Pray? and Mixed Up.

She tells this week's Closer magazine: "At last I'm the real me. I got fed up with waking up with my bedsheets stained with fake tan."

Describing why she decided to abandon her medical career to become a tabloid babe, she said: "I was in a sink-or-swim situation and I chose to make the most of the opportunity.

"I'm aware of my sexuality and, like any woman, I use my feminine wiles. I've done a lot of modelling, which was very successful for me. I used my assets to the max."

She added: "I've earned lots of money – I've got four properties in central London now – but my brain was going numb while I was modelling. It wasn't enough for me."

After Titmuss was romantically linked to a host of celebrity men, including Little Britain comedian David Walliams, she appears to be settling down with Hustle actor Marc Warren.

She said: "I absolutely trust him. For a successful relationship, I think you have to have communication, trust, respect and love.

"Although we're not living together yet, I want to get married one day and have children. I don't want to put any pressure on Marc, although I will admit he's my perfect man."