Cat told FHM-magazine: "When I was 14 I had a bad perm, very thin legs and big eyebrows," Cat recalls. "I looked like the missing Gallagher sister, and I certainly wasn't the girl at school who everybody fancied. I didn't have big boobs or anything. Then, when The Clothes Show Live was at the Birmingham NEC, I entered a modelling competition and got through to the finals."

So instead of being swamped by piles of well-thumbed text-books, sharing dingy accommodation with a bunch of scruffy degenerates and eating cold Kwik Save soup from a can, Cat now hosts MTV chart show Hitlist UK and fronts the slightly more saucy Amour (where she plays the Devil's girlfriend). Yet in spite of the interests she's generated over the last 12 months, the news that she's been voted one of the top ten most desirable women on the planet comes as a bit of a shock to her.

"Number eight!" she gasps, attempting not to choke on mouthfuls of worryingly rare-looking fillet steak while sitting in a London restaurant. "My God! Bloody hell! Who's number seven?" The daughter of a technical designer and a former council worker, Cat's childhood was filled with low-budget school plays, spiffing street parties and quite breathtaking exam success. She's got nine grade-A GCSEs and four A-levels. "I didn't have my first kiss until I was about 14, so I didn't have a lot to distract me," she says by way of explanation

Now living in a north London flat with two models, Cat is as happy as a nun with a candlestick, spending most of her week clubbing, pubbing and knocking back pints of lager. "All I knew before I got into presenting, was that I didn't want to reach 30 and find myself married with two kids and say, 'What would have happened if I'd gone to London when I was 17?' And I'm really, really grateful for what I've got. It's brilliant!"