Former glamour model Alicia Douvall, 47, reveals she was celibate for 10 years before being 'swept away' by new husband David Anstiss

Alicia Douvall has revealed she was celibate for ten years before finding love with her husband David Anstiss.

The former glamour model, 47, married the business leader earlier this month in a church ceremony in front of 90 of their closest friends and family. 

Reflecting on their love story, Alicia revealed how she had never wanted to get married and had given up on love, before meeting David.

'I'd switched off, I'd been celibate for 10 years and wasn't looking for anymore,' she told OK! Magazine. 

'I've always been the runaway bride who never wanted to get married. But when I finally did, it was the most amazing thing ever. Neither of us had been in love before which made it really special.' 

Alicia soon fell head over heels for David, who wooed her with dinners at Michelin-star restaurants and stays at boutique hotels. 

Six months later, David, who is the director of Solution Engineering, proposed in the Maldives at sunset. Alicia revealed she had no idea he was going to do so. 

The couple planned their wedding upon their return to the UK.

The former glamour model suffered a setback when five weeks to her wedding, she walked away from her £12,000 designer gown after falling out with the bridal team. 

She ended up designing her own dress with a small boutique. It was a strapless satin gown with a five-metre veil. After losing a stone, her wedding and evening reception dress had to be altered at the last minute. 

Despite all the stress, the wedding went off without a hitch. 

Alicia's daughters Georgia, 31, and Papaya, 14, whom she raised as a single mother were her bridesmaids. They have formed a close bond with David, who sees them as his daughters. 

The reception was held at a country house where the party 'line-danced into the night'. They then jetted off for a minimoon to Spain and will honeymoon in the Seychelles next year. 

Alicia, who has had more than 400 cosmetic procedures over the years, said finding love has helped turn her back on surgery. 

After 18 boob jobs, 11 nose tweaks, bum implants and even having her ribs shaved down Alicia gave up going under the knife and over the past decade has built a successful skincare brand, centred, ironically enough, around the ethos of natural anti-ageing. 

She said: 'I'm so proud of what I've done to put that chapter behind me, it's a scary world with so much fakeness, we need more honesty about self-acceptance and mental health.' 

Her beauty brand is quite the pivot for Alicia, whose previous life ambition was to have the biggest boobs in Britain.

Born Sarah Howes (she changed her name to one more suited to glamour modelling), her father was a self-made millionaire and Tory councillor and she attended the prestigious Springfield Park School, Horsham, West Sussex.

But Alicia has admitted being sent to boarding school aged nine was the start of her issues with self-confidence and an obsession with her looks.

She was later diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder, also called dysmorphia. A mental illness linked to anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, sufferers obsess over their appearance and have a distorted perception of the way they look.

After 20 years of being known for her enhancements, she has reinvented herself as a spokeswoman for ageing naturally.

In 2011, she and her daughter launched Douvall's beauty brand after discovering the benefits of cold-pressed argan oil on their skin.

Alicia, who once sparked outrage when she said she wouldn't mind if her eldest daughter had plastic surgery too, launched the business with Georgia and invested all of her £20,000 savings.

And it's paid off with the brand stocked in the likes of Sephora and Superdrug in the UK and Walmart in the US.