Elizabeth Hurley

About Elizabeth Hurley

Elizabeth Jane Hurley (born 10 June 1965) is an English model and former actress who gained fame as a girlfriend of Hugh Grant. The highlight of Hurley's professional life has been her association with the cosmetics company Estée Lauder, which gave Hurley her first modeling job at the age of 29 and has used her as a model for Estee Lauder cosmetics since 1995.

Hurley was born as a middle child in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, the daughter of Angela and Reg Hurley. Her Irish-Catholic father was a major in the British Army, while her Anglican mother was a teacher at Kempshott Infant School. She has an older sister Debbie and a younger brother Michael. Hurley was educated at the Kempshott Infant School, Kempshott Junior School, and the Harriet Costello School. Aspiring to be a dancer, she took ballet classes in her youth and later briefly studied dance and theater at the London Studio Centre. While in her teens, she became involved with punk fashion, dying her hair pink and piercing her nose. She associated with New Age Travellers, who sat under The Buttercross monument and the grounds of the Cathedral in Winchester, near Hurley's home.

In 1987, while working on a Spanish production called Remando Al Viento, when she was an obscure actress, Hurley met actor Hugh Grant and they started a long romantic relationship. In 1994, Grant's film Four Weddings and a Funeral was an international box office success and Grant became an overnight global star, garnering the focus of much media attention. Hurley accompanied Grant to the film's London premiere in a black plunging Versace dress held together with gold safety pins, which was often referred in the tabloids as "that dress" and brought Hurley to the attention of the Estée Lauder company.