SOUTHAMPTON'S pantomime star Nadia Almada has admitted she was once a prostitute.

The Big Brother 5 winner, who is playing a mermaid in Peter Pan at The Mayflower this Christmas, said she had sold her body to men for almost a year to pay for her sex-change operation.

Nadia, born Jorge Almada on the Portuguese island of Madeira, had the surgery in December last year.

Theatre bosses say the revelation will not affect her role in the show.

She told a national newspaper: "I feel so ashamed. I've always dreaded this dark secret would come out.

"Now it has come back to haunt me. I feel so dirty and disgusted with myself.

"But the money was so good and the attention so great that I became addicted."

She added that she had felt prostitution - through which she earned up to £1,000 a week - was the only way she could get the female body she craved.

The 27-year-old transsexual, who lives in Woking, Surrey, said she was working at the Allders department store in the town, where she earned £200 a week, and was clocking up huge debts on her credit card when she decided to turn to prostitution.

Nadia, who won Channel 4's Big Brother 5 in August, scooping the £63,500 prize, visited Southampton last month to promote the pantomime.

A spokesman for The Mayflower said: "Our feeling is that she has made a mistake and she has owned up to it. Everybody has made mistakes.

"It makes no difference to her appearance in the pantomime. She has been billed as the mermaid and that is the role she will play."

Peter Pan producer Paul Elliott, of Qdos Entertainment, said he agreed with the comments made at the weekend that Nadia's "secret will shock her fans - but her frankness will earn their forgiveness" and that she was proof that it is never too late to turn over a new leaf.

"I think that sums it up," said Mr Elliott.

"It happened some time ago. We have all done things in our lives we sometimes regret.

"I have met Nadia and she is a very nice woman."

The Daily Echo has learned that former TV-AM presenter Anne Diamond had to step down from her role in Peter Pan due to other work commitments.

She was originally cast in the role of Mrs Darling but left the cast in the summer before rehearsals began.