Dowding did well in school, earning eleven GCSEs and three A-levels. While studying for an economics degree at Royal Holloway, University of London, in Surrey, the eighteen-year-old entered and won the 1998 Miss Great Britain competition. In Hawaii later that year she became the first woman of Asian descent to represent Britain in the Miss Universe pageant.

After her success in beauty pageants, Dowding dropped out of university to pursue a full-time modelling career. Although she had not originally considered topless modelling, she started appearing as a Page Three girl in The Sun newspaper in 1999. Her younger sister Melanie ("Mel") Dowding also had a brief career as a Page Three girl, and the sisters have posed together for topless photo shoots.

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She dated footballer Anwar Uddin in 2002. She has also been in relationships with former Wimbledon and Northern Ireland defender Mark Williams and was engaged to former Arsenal footballer Jérémie Aliadière. She became engaged to American Richie Palmer, the owner of Mulberry St Pizza, and former husband of Hollywood siren Raquel Welch in February 2008.