HE may be showing off his effortless French charm in the I’m A Celebrity jungle, but it seems Fred Sirieix’s daughter is set to be the bigger star.
Having recently partnered with Adidas, Olympic diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix’s star is on the rise.
The 19-year-old has confessed it “feels good” when fans recognise her for her own talents rather than for being the daughter of First Dates’ Fred.
And PR expert Cala Speight believes she could be a teen millionaire very soon thanks to big-name brand deals with the likes of Adidas and Lego.
She tells us: “She’s got a glittering future ahead of her and no doubt has it all mapped out.
“She’s standing on her own two feet and forging a successful career for herself, it’s only right that big brands are queuing up to work with her, and she’s set to earn millions.”
Andrea made her international debut as a diver in 2018, at the age of 13, and then won her first solo international gold medal at the 2020 FINA Diving Grand Prix.
That year, she was crowned BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.
The award was presented to her on Blue Peter by sports hosts Alex Scott and Clare Balding.
But 2022 was her breakthrough year, becoming a World junior, two-time European senior, two-time Commonwealth Games and two-time national senior champion in solo diving, as well as a World senior medalist in the team event.
She was even shortlisted in The Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year.
Taking to Instagram to celebrate, she shared a video of a strength and conditioning training session in the gym.
She wrote: “In honour of being shortlisted in The Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year, please find attached a very not so easy S&C session.
“Twas a difficult day, but @alex.doud @gzsportsphysio and the whole team know how to make the hard days a little easier.
“I am so grateful for all of the love and support that surrounds me. I don’t quite know how to say thank you but I know I am so very blessed by God.”
“What’s impressive about Andrea is she’s achieved a lot of these highlights and prestigious awards at an incredibly young age in an industry that’s worlds apart from her father’s,” says Carla. “She’s worked incredibly hard and has huge achievements under her belt – all due to her own talents and work ethic.”
And, despite not being shy about walking the red carpet with her dad Fred, having done so at the 2021 National Television Awards, Andrea has confessed she enjoys being known for her own talents.
She told PA last year: “It’s quite funny, I had an interaction with someone the other day. I was with my mum, and [a man] just stopped and just pointed at me and went, ‘Well done! Well done.’
“I didn’t know what to do. It feels a bit weird, because usually it’s my dad that’s recognised and I’m just there standing in the back.
“But to know that my name is out there, I’m not just someone’s daughter.
“I’m actually doing something on my own and my name is appearing… It feels good.”
It seems big brands are really picking up on Andrea’s star power in more recent times.
She’s been posting adverts for Lego on Instagram, including one in which she and her younger brother Lucien are playing with the toy together.
And three weeks ago, she joined Adidas.
Sharing a picture of herself, beaming, on Instagram, she wrote: “All smiles after joining the three stripe family at adidas HQ.”
Proud dad Fred also took to Instagram to share a very sweet picture of himself with his daughter.
He wrote: “My daughter. My little World class diver and brand new @adidas athlete.”
Adidas commented: “Welcome to the fam.”
Carla believes Andrea’s choice of brand deals is very smart – and could lead to her getting her own company in the near future.
She comments: “Having taken opportunities with brands both connected to the sport, and outside of sport, Andrea has secured her future, financially and also with a lucrative and diverse career pathway.
“Merchandise and her own range of sports and leisure equipment are now available for her to pursue.
“She could collaborate with a big brand, like Adidas, to bring out her own line for them or she could create her own brand entirely, following in the footsteps of other Olympians, like Victoria Pembleton with her bicycle range.
“Either way, this would be a hugely successful move for her and could earn her millions.”
But even though Andrea is doing incredibly in her career now, she nearly stopped diving altogether due to a “mental block” a few years back.
“I was just struggling a lot in every section of life: in school and training, in finding contentment in everything that I was doing,” she told the Olympics website. “And I just couldn’t dive. I couldn’t throw myself. I couldn’t do anything simple, anything hard.”
Andrea was even struggling during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, making her debut for Great Britain at just 16 years old.
She said: “I thought that going into the Olympic Games, these blocks would leave because the adrenaline would take over and the excitement would take over because I am literally fulfilling my dream. But that wasn’t the case.
“I literally just threw myself off that board every single day. I did not think twice about it because I thought that if I didn’t go then I’d be disappointing everyone.
“And it’s hard because it was my first. I was 16. I was at the Olympic Games. I was about to become an Olympian, but I wasn’t performing at my best.
“That’s what really upsets me now is I was trying so hard: I really, really was. And the Olympics you watch them, and you get inspired by every single athlete.
“And I was exhausted. Because I was trying, I was giving 100 per cent every single day, but it looked like I wasn’t giving anything.”
Andrea also bravely admitted she’s struggled a lot with her body image, due to the stereotypical physique athletes, especially divers, are expected to have.
She said: “Being in an aesthetic sport there’s almost this stereotype that we have to look a certain way and that stereotype is: small, very thin frame, very, very thin stomach.
“And it was something that I aligned myself with, and I pressured myself to want to look like that, to need to look like that because I thought that that was what was correct.
“I put all bodies and all women in one box, and I really shouldn’t have, but it’s something that a lot of us in sports struggle with because the women that look like that are praised and they’re seen as more beautiful.”
Away from her diving success, Andrea studied English, Spanish and history at A-level.
But, after struggling so much with food and body image, she also did an extended project qualification “on how body image and struggling with body image affects other areas of life, like eating, how you look at yourself”.
She added: “I wrote that because I struggled with eating.
“I struggled with understanding that I was beautiful the way that I was, and that I didn’t need to be super thin, or I didn’t need to eat less.
“I thought that I deserved to eat less because I didn’t look like that and it was something that I could never go through again, that pressure of ‘I need to look like this, so I’m going to try and control it with what I eat’.
“I was so tired, I was sad, even though I lost weight or even though I looked smaller, which sometimes I didn’t, because I then indulged in more food, it’s just an ongoing cycle of destruction.
“And I want to highlight how that destruction can be stopped, it doesn’t need to continue, that cycle doesn’t need to continue.”
Fred has had a very lucrative TV career since launching to fame as the maitre d’ on First Dates, having gone on to star in Gordon, Gino & Fred’s Road Trip, and now I’m A Celebrity.
And Carla believes Andrea could land a TV presenting role in the future too – which could earn her millions.
She says: “If she chooses to stay on her current pathway, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t see more of her on TV soon.
“She has the ability to present, which makes her ideal for the big sports shows, popular with any sports person wanting to continue their career beyond the time-limited sport itself.
“She could step into her father’s world and teach nutrition and fitness to the younger generations who have followed her career.
“She could create books, online series, podcasts, live events and even host her own TV shows.
“The big brands would flock to partner and sponsor her work in that area and fees would reach six or seven figures, especially as they’ll be endorsed with product placement and her using them too.”
But Andrea has much simpler hopes for the future.
When asked what her goals are last year, she said: “To be happy and healthy, to have fun.
“I’d like to go to university. I’d like an Olympic medal and after diving, I’d like to help others using the skills that I’ve learnt.
“As a sportswoman I want to inspire others.”
