X Factor starn Diana Vickers reveals she spent the night with Leonardo DiCaprio

Diana Vickers has come a long way since X Factor. Here, she talks channelling Gwyneth Paltrow in a new musical and a memorable evening with a huge Hollywood star...

Diana Vickers couldn’t be happier when we catch up with her for an exclusive chat. The 33-year-old Blackburn actress, famed back in the day for her stint on Simon Cowell's X Factor in 2008, is now a well-respected West End force, exuding positivity and fun as she opens up about her new stage role to OK!

Diana has taken on a variety of big parts since her acting debut in The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice in 2009, but her latest comes as something of a surprise. Starring as Gwyneth Paltrow in I Wish You Well: The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski-Trial Musical – a show complete with bombastic musical numbers like I’m Gwynnocent, money guns and a giant vagina candle – the fast-paced parody sounds like a riot.

The bubbly actress plays the Hollywood star in the musical adaptation of the 2023 celebrity trial, Gwyneth Paltrow vs Terry Sanderson, that resulted from a ski slope collision. The high-profile trial saw retired optometrist Sanderson sue Paltrow for $300,000 – and Gwyneth countersued for $1. The Utah court ruled in her favour and the trial wrapped with the now iconic four words from the A-lister: “I wish you well.”

Diana admits: “I was initially, like, how the hell do you make a musical out of this? But as soon as I read the script, I fell in love with it, absolutely laughed my head off. I called the producer and said, ‘It’s a yes from me!’” It helped that Diana – who also hosts podcast Ki And Dee, where she talks dating and everything else under the sun with best friend Chiara Hunter – was already a bona fide fan of Goop founder Gwyneth, admitting she’d been glued to the TV, watching the trial.

“I was completely obsessed with it. And she’s an icon. I watch Shallow Hal at least once a year. Now she’s carved this new career in wellbeing,” she says. “But I’m obsessed with celebrity trials – Wagatha Christie, Amber Heard vs Johnny Depp,” she continues. “The fact that we can have an insight into these courtroom dramas.

And Gwyneth was great – she came into the courtroom slaying these amazing looks. She was ballsy, too. She could have done it outside court, but chose to come in because she believed in herself and was like, ‘I’m going to counter you for one dollar.’ She wasn’t messing around!”

Diana also believes the musical, now running in London’s West End after rave reviews at the Edinburgh Festival, is just the right dose of camp joy we need right now. “It feels like the world ’s on fire – we all need a laugh and a carefree night out. It’s musical theatre but also like the best comedy skit – and the music is like pop you’d listen to getting ready for a night out.”

What does the woman herself make of this show? Diana, who’s not yet met her, has a friend in common with Gwyneth. Apparently, the Hollywood icon is aware of the show, “curious” about it, and there is even “talk” of her coming to watch it – something that strikes terror into Diana’s heart. “It would be incredible, but I’ve told everyone, if she does come, they’d better not tell me which night – I’ll either give my best or worst performance ever!”

As for channelling the actress turned wellness guru onstage, Diana has a nightly ritual she tends to follow. “I have a vagina candle of hers, which I take a little whiff of before I go onstage. She’s so demure and graceful, so I focus on that. I come out behind some double doors, and I’m saying in my head, ‘You are Gwyneth Paltrow – you are an icon.’ I just connect with that Hollywood superstar vibe.”

The musical is choreographed by former Strictly legend Arlene Phillips, 81, who Diana calls a “wonderful human being” with an amazing drive. Does she imagine herself working until a similar age? As a self-confessed “workaholic”, she thinks so. “Much as I like the idea of retiring at 50 on a Caribbean island, I’d probably get really bored after a few weeks,” she says.

Given the prolific theatre work Diana has done to date, it’s hard to imagine the ambitious blonde (who is, incidentally, a skateboarder, not a skier) slowing down. And she’s happy, she says, that after what felt like a long, hard slog, she’s been accepted into the theatre community and isn’t just “that girl off The X Factor” any more.

Simon Cowell’s show – where Diana was mentored by Cheryl in the Girls category and came fourth, in the same year as Alexandra Burke, JLS and former flame Eoghan Quigg – gave her a huge platform, but Diana is proud of the work she’s put in since. “I’ve had so many highs, so many lows, so many ‘almosts’. I saw a poster with me on it the other day at Piccadilly Circus and my friend was like, ‘Have you got imposter syndrome?’ I was like, ‘No!’ I finally feel like I deserve this – I’ve put in the hard graft for the past seven years. I’m not letting any negative thoughts ruin that.”

Looking back at her time on The X Factor, when she was just 16, Diana does admit there was an element of “pressure” to finding herself thrust into the limelight. “I was really young, and being judged in front of a lot of people – all these adults telling you their opinions. But I really enjoyed it. And even back then I was able to say, ‘Diana, it’s just a TV show,’ which was healthy. I took it all with a pinch of salt.

“I remember I’d get quite nervous onstage. Even now, I’m super-confident but I have an anxious side, which people are surprised about. But yeah… I have some mad memories, Kate Moss running about backstage, Britney Spears appearing, Beyoncé… It was a whirlwind.” Her iconic look, with that famous bird’s-nest hairstyle, led to show judge Louis Walsh calling Diana a “little hippy”, and she laughs at the memory.

“I used to walk around school like that, you know – my hair all backcombed. Kids at school would bully me a bit but I remember really not caring. Then, everyone was doing it – I was like, ‘Oh God, I’ve started something here!’” Her style, of course, has evolved. These days, she says, she’d describe it as a mix of 70s fashion and old Hollywood glamour, a la Audrey Hepburn.

But has growing up in the public eye changed Diana in other ways? “I don’t feel like I’ve changed, I still have that drive,” she says, thoughtfully. “I don’t believe any dream is too big. That’s why I think I went on The X Factor, coming from a little town in Blackburn, and did so well. I carry that with me. I love that I’ve not lost that – because you get so much rejection in this industry. It can be really brutal. But I’ve made peace with it. I trust the process.”

There are elements of fame as a teen that Diana did struggle with, though – including body image, as she admits she was a mix of confidence and insecurity. “I still had my puppy fat. I would struggle in photoshoots – your hormones were all over the place. I’d see pics of myself, not like them and get really down, especially if it got pointed out in the press. But I’m 33 now – I’ve learned to accept myself. I’ve got self-love.”

And is there any time in her busy life for romance, right now? Diana, who has kept her private life out of the spotlight in recent years, tells us she is single, but dating, and is in no rush to find The One. “In the past year, I’ve just been ‘trying people on’, as they say,” she laughs. “I’m at this exciting point in my career where I’m just focused on that, and working so, so hard… I’m single but I don’t think I’ve ever been happier, or more at peace with myself.

“I’m not that bothered about men right now. I am a really big romantic, though – I’m very positive that one day I’ll meet my person, all of that. But this career chapter is the start of something. Maybe he’s in it somewhere, who knows!”

It can’t be easy dating in the public eye, though. Diana admits most of her past long-term relationships have been with guys in the industry, who “get it”. But she’s at pains to point out that away from the showbiz parties and gala nights, she’s just a normal girl, who’s doing what she loves.

“I’m a Northern girl, with my feet on the ground. I’m very normal. I’m surrounded by the most grounded people. I like to bake, watch my movies, go on cute little country getaways.

“I’m in my Nancy Meyers era. I love having friends around and eating nice food and drinking nice wine. Don’t get me wrong, if somebody says, ‘Let’s go clubbing in Ibiza for the weekend,’ I’ll be like, ‘Yeah alright,’ – I’ll find the energy!” Meanwhile, she’ll happily daydream about the likes of Saltburn actor Jacob Elordi and Dune star Timothée Chalomet.

“They are ‘it’ for me,” she says. “I haven’t met either, but one day… They’ve both got girlfriends though, so the world hasn’t brought us together yet…”