Tania Mallet was born in Blackpool, to English father Henry Mallet, and Russian mother Olga Mironoff. Tania is cousin of actress Helen Mirren. Her mother and Helen's father were brother and sister. Mallet attended the Lucy Clayton's School Of Modelling, and started working as a model at just 16 years of age in 1957, becoming one of the most recognisable and famous models of the late 1950s and early 1960s.