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Nepo baby whose mother is an iconic soap legend nabs first huge modelling gig - but can YOU guess who it is?

Nepo baby whose mother is an iconic soap legend nabs first huge modelling gig - but can YOU guess who it is?

Daily Mail​10-05-2025

A nepo baby, who is the child of an iconic soap actress, has caught her big break into the world of fashion.
Her EastEnders legend mother took to Instagram to gush over her daughter's achievement as she shared a snap of her offspring on a New York billboard.
In the modelling snaps, her daughter, 23, sported an oversized yellow jumper as she advertised for Salt & Stone deodorant.
She is one of four children and has been making a name for herself in the fashion world alonsgide her older brother Fenton, 24.
Her mother, 52, who is based in the US, also recently graced UK screens in a gig away from soaps as she joined a major TV show.
But can you guess who it is?
That's right, its Patsy Palmer's daughter Emilia Merkell.
Patsy couldn't hide her pride as she took to Instagram to gush over her daughter's major modelling achievement as she follows in her own showbiz footsteps.
Sharing a picture of the billboard, she wrote: 'So so proud to see you @emiliamerkell in NYC @saltandstone campaign. Beautiful.'
Emilia is signed to Women Management Los Angeles and from her Instagram, the nepo baby also models for a range of bikini brands.
Patsy shares her daughter Emilia and two other children Fenton, 24, and Bertie, 14, with her husband, former cab driver Richard Merkell.
Patsy is also a mother to actor Charley Palmer Rothwell, 33, who she welcomed with her ex, former boxer Alfie Rothwell.
She is best known for playing gobby Bianca Jackson in EastEnders — a role that made her a household name in the world of soaps in the 1990s.
Her iconic 'RICKAAAAAY!' catchphrase became one of the soap's most memorable lines and is still to this day asked to quote the legendary phrase.
Patsy and her daughter no longer resides in the UK and upped stocks to go and live in Los Angeles, where she is now a DJ and a wellness advocate
Patsy no longer resides in the UK and upped stocks to go and live in Los Angeles where she is now a DJ and a wellness advocate.
But she recently returned to UK screens as a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother, where she made it all the way to the last week despite her constant pleas to go home.
She left alongside TV presenter Angellica Bell and Towie's Ella Rae Wise during a harsh triple eviction.
Patsy shot to stardom as market trader Bianca aged 21, where she found on-screen love with Ricky Butcher, and also found a place in the hearts of the nation.
However off screen, Patsy began struggling with a party hard lifestyle where she would binge on alcohol, cocaine and ecstasy.
The TV star has previously admitted to trying alcohol at eight, sniffing solvents at 11 and even snorting cocaine at just 13.
When she joined the cast of EastEnders, Patsy was a single mother living with her son Charley in an East End flat.

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I wed a Nigerian toyboy 43 years my junior – people think I'm ‘crazy', call me his ‘grandma' & say he's with me for cash

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South Sudan - the African country producing fashion's favourite models
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South Sudan - the African country producing fashion's favourite models

Wearing an understated but chic outfit, flowing braids and a dewy, make-up free face, Arop Akol looks like your typical off-duty sinks into the sofa at the offices of her UK agency, First Model Management, and details the burgeoning career that has seen her walk runways for luxury brands in London and Paris."I had been watching modelling online since I was a child at the age of 11," Akol, now in her early twenties, tells the the last three years, she has been streamed across the world while modelling, even sharing a runway with Naomi Campbell at an Off-White for work can get lonely, but Akol is constantly bumping into models from her birth country - the lush, but troubled South Sudan."South Sudanese people have become very well known for their beauty," says Akol, who has high cheekbones, rich, dark skin and stands 5ft 10in through a fashion magazine or scan footage of a runway show and you will see Akol's point - models born and raised in South Sudan, or those from the country's sizable diaspora, are range from up-and-comers, like Akol, to supermodels like Anok Yai, Adut Akech and Alek Wek. 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She believes South Sudanese models are in demand not just for their physical beauty, but for their "resilience" was born in Juba but as a child she moved to neighbouring Uganda, like Akol and hundreds of thousands of other South fled in the years after 2011, when South Sudan became independent from were high hopes for the world's newest nation, but just two years later a civil war erupted, during which 400,000 people were killed and 2.5 million fled their homes for places like the civil war ended after five years, further waves of violence, natural disasters and poverty mean people continue to fighting between government and opposition forces has escalated - sparking fears the country will return to civil leaving a war-weary South Sudan for Uganda, Goi's "biggest dream" was to become a model. Fantasy became reality just last year, when she was scouted by agents via Facebook. 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When she was scouted in 2019, the agency in question asked her to fork out for numerous fees - fees which she now knows agencies do not normally request."I was asked for money for registration, money for this, for that. I couldn't manage all that. I'm struggling, my family is struggling, so I can't manage all that," she says. Three years later, while living in Uganda, she was eventually scouted by a more reputable who helps fledgling South Sudanese models produce portfolios, tells the BBC that some have complained about being paid for jobs in clothes, rather than models also come up against another challenge - their family's perception of their career choice."They didn't want it and they don't want it now," Akol, who now lives in London, says of her own relatives."But we [models] managed to come up and say: 'We are [a] young country. We need to go out there and meet people. We need to do things that everyone else is doing.'"Deng says those living in urban areas have become more open-minded, but some South Sudanese liken modelling to question the whole concept - wondering why their daughters would be "walking in front of people", he recalls a young woman he was assisting who was about to fly out for her first international job. Unhappy that she would be modelling, the woman's family followed her to the airport and prevented her from getting on the plane. But, Deng says, the woman's relatives eventually came around and she has since modelled for a top lingerie brand."This girl is actually the breadwinner of the family. She's taking all her siblings to school and nobody talks about it as a bad thing any more," he is "proud" to see this model - and others from South Sudan - on the global stage and although the industry cycles through trends, Deng does not believe South Sudanese models will go out of agrees, saying there is an "increasing demand for diversity" in too believes South Sudan is here to stay, stating: "Alek Wek has been doing it before I was born and she is still doing it now."South Sudanese models are going to go a long way." You may also be interested in: How luxury African fashion has wowed Europe's catwalksNo wigs please - the new rules shaking up beauty pageantsInside the beauty pageant in one of the world's worst places to be a womanThe 'peacock of Savile Row' on dressing stars for the Met GalaWATCH: Model Alek Wek on her unique career Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

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