Her tearful tantrums and dramatic outbursts on Love Island alarmed viewers and even prompted her doctor to intervene with the ITV1 reality show’s producers.
But model Sophie Anderton - who has beaten drug addiction and alcoholism - has a genuine reason for her erratic behaviour and mood swings.
For she has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which triggers periods of mania followed by depression. “Sophie has recently been told she has the condition,” says my source who got close to the former Gossard supermodel on the show. “She has to take mood stabilisers, which are helping to control her temperament and keep her more balanced.”
Comedian Stephen Fry was diagnosed with bipolar - which used to be called manic depression - when he was 37 and said at the time: “It explains the massive highs and miserable lows I’ve lived with all my life.”
The diagnosis will go some way towards explaining 29-year-old Sophie’s erratic and colourful love life. She has repeatedly expressed a desire to settle down with the right man, yet has dated a selection of exciting, yet unsuitable, playboys, nightclub owners and footballers.
More often than not the relationships ended in tears and on one occasion, after a violent argument with disgraced former Chelsea goalkeeper Mark Bosnich, in hospital with severe bruises.
Now Sophie, right, is busy making plans to move on and live with bipolar. After spending the summer in the sunny climes of Fiji she plans to spend next spring trekking across the Arctic Circle in Canada to raise money for a children’s charity. She will be accompanied by Nick Gold, son of legendary restaurant entrepreneur Johnny Gold, and seven other hardy souls.
“The plan is to cover 144 miles across Baffin Island in about two weeks,” Nick told me at the launch of Frankie’s Bar and Grill at Selfridges last week. “The temperatures will be around -30C, so at night we’re going to pitch up our tents on the ice and hope we wake up in the morning.”
September 11th, 2006
Supermodel Claudia Schiffer is to be warned by police for allowing her dogs to run wild on her country estate and terrorise walkers. Local people are now too scared to use a public footpath running near the ?5million mansion where she lives with her film producer husband Matthew Vaughn.
One of the dogs, an Irish wolfhound, savaged a Jack Russell being walked through the grounds while another, a German shepherd, bit a postman on the arm, leading to the threat of restrictions on mail deliveries to the house. Now the couple are set to be given a ticking-off and told to do more to keep their pets under control.
The elderly Jack Russell was being walked by its owner on the footpath past 16th century Coldham Hall at Stanningfield near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, a year ago when it was attacked.
Out of nowhere, Schiffer’s Irish wolfhound bitch, Roxy, snatched up the terrified dog in its jaws and started shaking it. Having rescued her badly-mauled pet, its distressed owner, who had been walking with her grandchildren, complained to police, and an officer spoke to a member of the Schiffer household. But no further action was taken and the celebrity couple paid for the seriously-injured dog to have surgery costing several hundred pounds.
Since then the German shepherd, Oscar, is said to have attacked a postman, and Royal Mail bosses are believed to have put the 12-bedroom house on a list of addresses which have potentially dangerous dogs.
They have told postmen not to get out of their vans if they see the dogs on the loose, it is understood. Many locals claim they are now too scared to use the path, which goes along the couple’s 600-yard driveway and through her 40 acres of parkland.
Up to six villagers have written letters of complaint to Schiffer, 36, and her husband, who divide their time between the estate and their home in Notting Hill, West London along with their children Caspar, three, and 17-month-old Clementine.
Oscar - whose father Rocky featured in the Vinnie Jones film Mean Machine - travels with the family, but Roxy stays at Coldham where she is exercised by the couple’s ex-Gurkha security team, and locals say there are still problems.One villager, who asked not to be named, said: “The dogs are still getting out on their own and can be quite aggressive and intimidating when they run up and bark.
“The wolfhound is worse because it is the size of a small pony and she has got far more frightening as she has grown up.” She has written to complain and received an apology from Vaughn who said staff had been told to keep the dogs off the path.
“But when I went down the path again I had the same problem with the wolfhound trying to bite my dog. I wrote a second letter to the house, but I got no reply.
“A lot of people have now been put off using this path because they are worried about the dogs. I certainly don’t like going there any more.” Community beat officer Pc Den Mullett confirmed he had received a number of complaints about the dogs roaming freely on the footpath. “Arrangements are in hand to meet with the owners of the dogs to discuss these issues,” he added.
Last night Royal Mail confirmed a postman had been bitten and said steps would be taken against owners who failed to keep aggressive dogs under control.
A spokeswoman for Schiffer insisted the attack on the Jack Russell had been taken very seriously by the couple.
“The household have since taken various precautions with the dogs to ensure public safety,” she added. “This has included sending the dogs for re-training and keeping them in an enclosed area.”
She would not comment on subsequent incidents including that involving the postman.
September 11th, 2006