Holly Valance has divided the internet as a lightning rod in the culture wars. This is what you need to know

Holly Valance for prime minister.

Holly Valance for president.

Holly Valance for bringing back common sense into the modern political world.

The chants are ringing across social media.

Well, except for those saying the exact opposite.

Those are the ones saying that former Aussie singer and Neighbours soapie star Holly Valance is “far right, loves Trump, married a property billionaire and hasn’t worked since she was in her 20s”.

Valance has divided the internet and found herself either a poster child for the anti-woke movement or a modern version of Marie Antoinette.

She is a trending topic of the seemingly never-ending cultural war.

The now 40-year-old, who lives in the UK and has two kids with property billionaire Nick Candy, hit headlines in February when she declared that “everyone starts off as a leftie, then wakes up at some point, after you start either making money, working, trying to run a business, trying to buy a home, and then you realise what crap ideas they all are”.

“And then you go to the right,” she said.

Valance, who the UK media at the time described as “notoriously private”, was expounding on her right-wing views at a political event for ex-UK prime minister Liz Truss.

The video of her talking to GB News went viral.

Suddenly the one-time pop star known for the sexually charged 2002 single Kiss Kiss and her role playing the wholesome Felicity Scully on Neighbours found herself at the centre of very serious political conversations.

SBS News, for example, discussed at length how Valance’s view mirrored the famous Winston Churchill quote: “If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain.”

But it also warned she had misread the mood.

One expert told SBS News that in Australia the young generation was starting more left-wing than ever and surveys revealed it didn’t seem to be shifting right.

It turns out Holly’s comments about “lefties” were just the entree.

She set international headlines alight at the weekend by expanding even further on her political views in a sit-down interview with GB News’ Political Podcast hosted by Chris Hope.

Nothing was off the table for discussion — from controversial climate activist Greta Thurnberg to Australia’s “wokeness” and COVID hard borders to praising Donald Trump.

On Greta, she said: “I don’t understand why you have this, like, demonic little gremlin high priestess of climatism as the goddess in classrooms, Greta (Thunberg).

“And the kids are all coming home with depression and anxiety. Why would you go to your music lesson or bother doing your homework or get out of bed if you think we’re all going to be dead in five years anyway? I mean, ‘They told me in class, Greta told me’.

“Why would you bother, it doesn’t give anybody hope.”

On Australia, she criticised Down Under for how “woke” it had gone and said she had no plans to return.

“I’ll get a ticket within the first two hours of arriving, doing something, parking in the wrong place, going one K over the 30 or 25 K speed limit,” she said.

“The Australia I grew up in was unreal. It was so fun, and we didn’t seem to have all these problems. The woke stuff’s really gone big in Australia.”

She even got stuck into the Australian school curriculum.

“I don’t think children and sexuality should be in the same sentence,” she said.

“You don’t know about mine, I don’t know about yours, why would we?

“That stuff really irks me”.

Valance claimed she missed her sister’s wedding because of Australia’s COVID lockdown.

She also revealed she was an anti-vaxxer.

“If you are fit and healthy, you should be fine, your body will know what to do,” she said.

Valance was sighted alongside former president Donald Trump in 2022, describing him as “extremely warm, extremely gentlemanly”.

She argued that people needed to “harden up”, particularly in regards to his often polarising remarks about women.

“People say nasty things all day,” she said. “I have had disgusting things said to me … Did I cry? No.”

At first, the social media pile-on against Holly Valance was swift.

“The vile opinions of a washed-up soap star, one-hit wonder, out-of-touch billionaire’s wife,” was the kind of stuff tweeted fast and furious.

But, then, it emerged she had just as many supporters.

Had the silent majority woken from its slumber to champion a new hero?

“Holly Valance is speaking nothing but the truth,” was the kind of stuff being tweeted just as fast and just as furious.

In Australia, she found support from some media’s biggest names.

The country’s biggest radio star and someone who courts controversy himself, Kyle Sandilands, backed her in, full throttle.

“The people that are in charge are all woke, so every one of their dumb rules is for the benefit of everyone,” he said. “Everyone’s got to be looked after.”

Sandilands also got stuck into Thunberg.

“I hate that chick too.”

Talkback radio star Ben Fordham even dedicated a segment to her on his 2GB Sydney morning show on Monday.

“She’s unleashed on how woke Australia has become,” he said.

“The former soap star hasn’t held back on delivering some truth bombs.

“A lot of the time actors keep their mouths shut when they’ve got strong political opinions … but she doesn’t muck about.”

I don’t understand why you have this, like, demonic little gremlin high priestess of climatism as the goddess in classrooms.