A YOUNG, posh and penniless model came to a truckers caf for a reality TV special on Tuesday.

Glamorous rich girl Donatella Panayiotou mopped out toilets and peeled spuds at the Roll Inn motel in Tanhouse, Widnes.

"She is an absolutely lovely girl, there's no nasty side to her and she is not stuck-up at all," said the motel's then owner, Danielle Owens from Runcorn.

Danielle agreed to filming to drum up business, although she had to sell up before the show came out.

She said Donatella, a 20-year-old model and TV presenter who divides her time between her father's mansions in Gloucestershire and London, didn't mind hard work.

"She stood there peeling potatoes for three days running but it wasn't even on the show," she said.

"All the jobs are menial, there's not a glamorous job to do in a truckers caf."

Gucci tracksuit owner Donatella told a national newspaper: "I didn't realise how hard these people have to work, for so little pay."

She said it made her realise how lucky she was - and she said Danielle and her friends were happier and more content than the people she mixes with.

Donatella said she liked the Widnes people she met, but her 13-hour shifts didn't let her see much of the town apart from a shopping trip to Asda.

Danielle, 40, and from Murdishaw said: "Shopping completely freaked me out. It was horrific!

"You are going round with a camera in your face and they would say 'stop, can you do that again so we can film from a different angle'."

She said Donatella enjoyed a night out in Wetherspoons and Top of the Town.

"She loved it. I think it was more weird for the people in the club because they weren't used to it and a couple of people kept jumping in front of the cameras, but we had a good night," said Danielle.

Danielle enjoyed the whole experience but said: "We quite missed the cameras when they had gone. They said we would and we did. You get used to them following you round after a while then it's like 'Oh! Where have they gone'?"

She especially enjoyed a trip to the TV studio to watch the tape in advance, on the same night the studio hosted the national TV awards - she got to walk up the red carpet with the stars.

She added: "I did the show for the financial benefits and it's quite sad because we had to sell-up, although it's a nice advert for the new owners.

"But what I got out of it is we have made a couple of friends, with Donatella and the TV people - they were all genuinely nice people."