 Her parents divorced when she was young, and her mother moved Deborah and her older sister Gail to Brightlingsea in Essex.Her mother remarried and had two more daughters (Cass and Emma) with Brian.Meaden went to the Godolphin School, Salisbury, for a brief period and then to Trowbridge High School for Girls (now The John of Gaunt School) which she left at the age of 16.