Joliet’s Adrianne Curry remembers going from Lone Star to reality star

Having spent the first 20 years of her life in Joliet, Adrianne Curry looks back on her hometown fondly — despite the way she sometimes describes it.

“Since we’re known for the prison, I say that I served 20 years there,” Curry said.

The winner of the first season of “America’s Next Top Model” and ex-wife of Christopher Knight, better known as Peter Brady from “The Brady Bunch”, Curry compared herself to another well-known reality TV contestant.

“I am like the Kelly Clarkson of models,” Curry said.

Curry, 30, said she wanted to be a model to avoid working monotonous jobs in Joliet.

“It was a lot better than working at the Lone Star Steakhouse at the Joliet mall,” Curry said. “I was saving up for college. A producer for the show gave me his card and I threw it away. I saw a commercial for it and then realized the guy was for real. I tried out. They had 47,000 girls; 20 semi-finalists.”

Curry not only made it on the show, but she won the whole thing.

“After winning that, not too many opportunities opened up for me,” Curry said. “That’s why I got into reality television. The fashion industry wasn’t going to accept what a TV show said the next top model was. I knew I had a personality, and everyone said I needed to be an actress or a host. That’s when I went on the ‘The Surreal Life.’”

On “The Surreal Life,” Curry met Knight, and their romance blossomed into marriage in 2006 after the first season of “My Fair Brady,” which followed the couple’s love life.

Curry, who currently dates Todd Roy, a producer on “The Jace Hall Show,” talked about how difficult it was to maintain a relationship in the public eye.

“We were under the microscope,” Curry said. “In 2008, we quit the show to try and salvage our marriage. Unfortunately, in 2011, we filed for divorce. My entire young adult life was played out on television. I got engaged on TV. Got married on TV.”

Now, in addition to being a spokesperson for The Flex Belt and Erox, Curry will start a weekly segment on “The Jace Hall Show.”

“We will be playing the ultimate video game,” Curry said. “One machine that has any game you can imagine on it.”

Curry twice posed for Playboy — and isn’t opposed to a third.

“Everyone knows Playboy,” Curry said. “My whole life growing up, I looked up to Cindy Crawford. So many supermodels have posed in it. I liked the supermodel spreads the most. They did it like Italian Vogue. It’s definitely not pornographic.

“Once I got older, I always wanted to do it. I’m a big fan of the female form. I don’t think I am going to burn in hell for showing my ass. I’m really good friends with Playboy people and would be interested in doing a third spread.”

Despite living in Los Angeles for a decade now, Curry said she still gets back to Joliet often and makes sure to swing by some of her favorite spots —including Maurie’s Table and Portillo’s.

“My family still lives there,” Curry said. “My dad lives in Lockport. I make it back four to seven times a year. I try to space it out. I stay three to seven days with my mom in the house I grew up in and my old bedroom.

“Whenever I go home, I throw back a couple of Jägerbombs with my dad at Uncle Richie’s in Lockport.”