Former Neighbours star Holly Valance now a darling of the right, mixing with key players in conservative circles

From playing Felicity Scully in TV soap Neighbours, Holly Valance has taken her career through modelling, acting and singing to now become a Donald Trump acolyte and significant political influencer.

We first met her as a teenager in suburban Erinsborough.

From playing Felicity Scully in TV soap Neighbours, Holly Valance has taken her career through modelling, acting and singing to now become a Donald Trump acolyte and significant political influencer.

The former starlet will be one of the main attractions at – for those of a certain political persuasion and bank balance – the only party in London on June 7 at which to be seen: Donald Trump’s election fundraiser.

“It will be the best party,” one Republican operative says. “It’s kind of a must-attend, if you can afford a ticket.”

Valance has become so influential on the right-wing British social scene that her name on the host list is the one that will convince many of London’s wealthy elite to stump up the $100,000 per couple to attend.

Australian Holly Valance and her husband Nick Candy (left) dined with former US president Donald Trump and conservative former British politician Nigel Farage in 2022. Picture: X

“It’s a Holly party, so you can guarantee it’s going to be enormous fun,” said conservative British politician Nigel Farage, who introduced Trump to Valance and her husband, billionaire British property developer and Tory party donor Nick Candy.

Trump is, she said last week, “charming, polite, very quick-witted. Most surprising of all, a great listener. That was not expected.” But it is only recently that Valance, 41, has started to talk publicly about her political views.

In a series of interviews on right-leaning TV channel GB News, the Australian has spoken about Farage (“ambassador Nigel Farage would be fantastic”), Greta Thunberg (“demonic little gremlin high priestess of climatism”), climate change (“I just think the climate crisis – or lack of – is not a crisis. The air is better than when I was growing up”), and her home country (“the woke stuff’s really gone big in Australia”).

Holly Valance described Greta Thunberg as a “demonic little gremlin”. Picture: Johan Nilsson/AFP

Valance did not intend to “speak out”, she said. “It was a funny sliding doors moment because I didn’t think anything I said was particularly edgy or profound or revolutionary. But maybe it was a good moment for someone in the entertainment industry to buck the trend of only contributing their latest project pitch or their pronouns.”

Farage invited Valance and Candy, 51, to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home in Florida, in April 2022. When he posted a picture of the four together on Twitter, all hell broke loose.

Holly Valance dancing the salsa with her partner Artem Chigvinstev on Strictly Come Dancing.

Some fans threatened to boycott Valance’s music, expressing horror at this hint towards her political persuasion. For those on the political right in London, however, it was no surprise.

Valance and Candy, who met in 2010 at a dinner party, married in Los Angeles in 2012 and have two daughters, have for more than a decade been at the heart of a glamorous and wealthy right-wing social circle that wields great influence on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Scully family in Neihgbours: (From left) Carla Bonner (Stephanie), Holly Valance (Felicity), Shane Connor (Joe), Janet Andrewartha (Lyn) and Kate Keltie (Michelle).

They were guests at Boris Johnson’s third wedding and attended the glitziest Tory fundraising bashes, as well as being noted hosts in their opulent west London and Cotswolds homes.

Not everyone is thrilled by views, least of all her sister Olympia, 31, also a Neighbours star.

“It was like, ‘Oh my God,’ when she said all that stuff,” Olympia told Hit WA radio. “I’m like, ‘Oh God! Everyone’s going to think that that’s what I think!’ And I don’t.”

Single cover of Holly Valance’s Down Boy.

But within Valance’s circles, she is a hero. A top Australian diplomat said she was “one of the reasons we secured such a favourable free trade agreement for Australia” in 2021.

“She had all of the right of the Tory party eating out of the palm of her hand.”

Several times the Conservatives discussed making Valance their London mayoral candidate, but in the end she decided against it.

Nick Candy and Holly Vallance arrive for the launch of Popular Conservatism, in London. Picture:: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Instead, she will vote for the right wing populist Reform UK in July’s British election. Her political priority is leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. “There seems to be this idea that if we did, Britain would fall into this lawless hellhole with nothing set in place to protect people’s rights,” she said. “This is Britain? We wrote the book on this stuff, for God’s sake, for countries the world over to follow … I understand at the time it had merit. But it’s a very different world now. And by the way, some may say we’re already a lawless hellhole.” Her mother is British and she’s clearly adopted Britain as her home.

Meanwhile, Team Trump is delighted. “She’s glamorous. She doesn’t fit into the pigeonhole. She doesn’t fit into the woke agenda of Hollywood and people don’t expect that,” said one admirer. Among the grey suits of the Westminster social circuit, she stands out: “She is definitely a star.” Another politico who moves in the same circles said: “She plays that scene very well. Everyone adores her.”

“That scene” is a circle of wealthy Londoners who are pro-Trump or at least Trump-adjacent. It includes former US ambassador Woody Johnson, GB News owner Paul Marshall, the former prime minister Liz Truss, a scattering of other Tory politicians and Brexit backers, and any number of hedge funders.

Their haunt is Mayfair’s private members’ club 5 Hertford Street, a hangout that has hosted the likes of Margot Robbie and George Clooney. All this makes London a highly profitable place for a Trump fundraiser, with organisers expecting to raise well into seven figures.

So entrenched in that circle is Valance, she was one of only three people to give a speech at Farage’s 60th birthday party last month – the others being his son and Trump via video link.

And Farage is confident she’ll be the life of the Trump party, too.