Liz's Billy Ray of sunshine

THE second Liz Hurley stepped on to the red carpet in that Versace safety-pin dress in 1994, she became one of the world's most desirable women.

- BY SANJEETA BAINS

Stunning, strong, savvy and smart, she seemed anything but relatable to the average woman on the street.

But over the decades Liz has also done the impossible - won herself an army of female fans. And she knows why: like all of us, she's no stranger to heartbreak.

"Most well-known women, if they are glamourpusses, have a male audience," she once noted.

"I've always had a much, much bigger female fan base than male. I've had so many knocks, that it means women are friendly to me."

However, ahead of turning 60 on June 10, could Liz’s bad luck in love be changing? This Easter she went Instagram-official with her surprising new boyfriend Billy Ray Cyrus.

The line-dancing 63-year-old country star - father of Miley Cyrus and no stranger to love troubles - kissed Liz in a tender photo.

Liz met the Achy Breaky Heart singer on the set of 2022 film Christmas in Paradise and she hinted at an ongoing closeness last month when she posted a video of herself dancing in a bikini to one of his songs.

Billy Ray is the latest in a long-ish line of Liz boyfriends but as a young woman she was more stand-offish.

Liz, born in 1965 in Basingstoke, England, to teacher Angela and soldier Roy, once adopted a punk persona.

She explained: "So many men took an interest, I wanted to make myself look as ghastly as possible. I did not want them to whistle any more." But after moving to London, Liz enrolled in a dance and theatre course and realised that to find work she would need to lose the nose ring and mohawk.