Gladiators 'Wonder Woman' Jet survived near-death accident live on air to ... trends now
She was the Gladiators 'Wonder Woman' who survived a near-death accident to become a bombshell star and date a beauty queen - before meeting her wife in Tesco.
The athlete known as Jet is still winning admirers online as the show which made her name is about to get a Saturday night primetime reboot on the BBC.
The performer with the real name Diane Youdale, now 53, was among the most prominent competitors in the original ITV show broadcast between 1992 and 2000.
She also appeared to be a favourite of Steve Coogan's spoof TV presenter and comic character Alan Partridge, often namechecked in his 1990s shows.
Yet she has now opened up about some of the traumatic experiences she endured - including nearly breaking her neck in the midst of her Gladiators heyday.
Gladiators athlete Jet, real name Diane Youdale, was one of the stars of the show which initially ran on ITV between 1992 and 2000 ahead of its modern-day BBC reboot
She survived a near-death experience before making her name on the programme whose presenters included John Fashanu, Ulrika Jonsson and Sharron Davies
Jet, middle, appeared alongside fellow athletes dubbed Lightning, left, and Scorpio, right
Diane was introduced on the Gladiators ITV debut as its 'very own Wonder Woman'.
Yet she has revealed how one of the stunts almost broke her neck, leaving her in danger as she felt a 'pop' when plunging from height on to crash mats.
She told the BBC this week: 'They stretchered me out and, as I was lying in an ambulance in agony, I thought I'm going to roll away while my limbs still work.
'I've done my four years, it's time to bow out.'
The accident happened during a Gladiators event at Wembley Arena in north London in 1996, though it was not being shown live on TV.
Diane, 26 at the time of that ordeal, had originally won her place on the show after 'blitzing' an Army assault course at Woolwich Barracks in south-east London.
She recalled: 'LWT [London Weekend Television] didn't have a big pool of people to draw from - they'd scoured magazines and looked at the fitness industry, but back then bodybuilders weren't what we call functional athletes.
'They couldn't run to catch a bus for a million pounds.
Fashanu and Jonsson, pictured centre, were the original hosts of the successful ITV series
Diane Youdale and Zoe Gilbert told on ITV's Lorraine show last August of their engagement
Former beauty queen Sonia Strong, left, has previously claimed she used to be in a relationship with ex-Gladiator Jet - though Diane Youdale has said their friendship was platonic
'I think it took them two or three years to get it right. They'd cast someone and then realise that person couldn't cut it in the arena, or wasn't popular or good on camera.'
Diane previously spoke on ITV's morning show Lorraine last August about her engagement to teacher Zoe Gilbert after they first met at her local supermarket.
She told of being approached by a
