Aoife grew up with her older brother Niall, sister Sinead, and parents Brian and Pat, and she studied English, Media and Cultural Studies at college in Dun Laoghaire, followed by a course in photography. Having started modelling at school, Aoife was Miss Ireland from 2005-2006. She is currently in a relationship with Ray, and will be appearing as Queen Victoria Beckingham in the Lyons Tea pantomime Sleeping Beauty at Liberty Hall, from 15 December.

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Aiveen grew up with her older siblings Eoin and Anne-Marie, and parents Michael and Maeve. She did an arts degree in Maynooth and a master's in folklore, and worked in AIB for a couple of years. She returned to college to do a master's degree in Archaeology in UCD, and is currently dating Fergal.

Aoife on Aiveen Aiveen and I met when we were about seven, because our older brothers were on the same rugby team, and we were always dragged along to watch the matches.

Aiveen was a year ahead of me in school, so being that bit younger, I wasn't cool enough to hang around with her. We both went to the Institute of Education for our Leaving Cert, and were in the same year then, because Aiveen did Transition Year but I went straight on to fifth year.

We literally used to spend 24/7 with each other, because we went to and from school together, were with one another all day, and had the same friends.

I remember that I always talked a lot, and Aiveen was a really good listener.

I'd say that she knows everything about me, and I can tell her anything, which is what makes her my best friend. We go out on the town, and have a laugh, but I could sit down and talk to her about serious things, and I know it would never go any further. Aiveen's really funny and witty, and she has a quirky sense of humour, which I get straight away. She doesn't ever judge me, and I know if I was to tell her I did the worst thing in the world, she wouldn't look down on me.

There is no jealousy between us, and Aiveen has been really cool about any success I've ever had, and I know she's genuinely happy for me. She has done brilliantly with her masters' degrees, and I would be equally happy for her. I have really good friends who are models, but it's also really important for me to have friends outside the world of modelling and showbusiness, because it's much healthier to be able to get completely away from it at times.

Aiveen and I always laugh about how different our lives are. We're very alike in many ways, but she really knows her own mind, but I'm more easily led. The thing about me is that I can listen to Aiveen's advice for hours, and think that she's exactly right in what she's saying, and as soon as I sit into my car and drive away, I go and do exactly what she told me not to do.

When Aiveen was thinking about leaving her job to go back to college to do archaeology, I was really encouraging, because I knew it was her true passion in life. I was so proud of her when she graduated, but Aiveen was always brilliant at school, so I knew that she'd do really well. She's looking for her first job now, and I have no doubt that she's going to be really successful.

Aiveen on Aoife My first memory of Aoife is when we were playing underneath the goalposts at our brothers' rugby match, and they were shouting at us to get out of the way because the kickers were lining up to take a penalty.

I was much quieter than Aoife when we were younger, and I was her agony aunt.

We went on our first ever holiday together to Gran Canaria after our Leaving Cert with loads of people from our class, and had a great time.

We have really similar personalities and sense of humour, but we always went after different things . . . different careers, different boys, etc. I never wanted Aoife's lifestyle, and I know she'd hate mine. I'm quite a lazy person so I'd just wear runners and jeans most days and wouldn't be putting on fake tan, but Aoife is under so much pressure to have everything about her looking perfect.

Aoife is the most generous person I know, almost to the point where people can take advantage of her occasionally.

Even when something happens and I'm upset, I know that after five minutes with Aoife, I'll be laughing again . . . she makes a joke out of everything so I can't be in a bad mood when she's around. We can sit for hours and hours talking, and I don't even know what we'd be talking about, but Aoife is just really good company. She's a brilliant friend, but her worst quality is that she makes me look short.

I think it's brilliant when I see Aoife popping up in the papers, but it's weird when people recognise her when we're out, because she's just Aoife to me. I was there when she won Miss Ireland, and it was absolutely brilliant and really exciting . . . I was crying and so proud of her. It was black-tie and we had to dress up, which was good fun, but it was nerve. . . wracking coming to the end. The champagne started flowing when she won, and it was downhill from there.

I met my boyfriend Fergal at Aoife's birthday party, and it's nice because he already knew Aoife's boyfriend Ray. Aoife and I meet up a few times every week, but we have different friends as well, because I hang out with college friends too, and Aoife has her other friends.

We actually like different music, and I love going to live music but she isn't into bands at all . . . she prefers listening to DJs in places like Crawdaddy. I've been living the student life for the last year so we've been able to go out midweek, if Aoife hasn't got a job on the next morning. The best nights are when the two of us go to Club M, because we always end up having such a laugh.