Hurley was born as a middle child in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, the daughter of Angela and Reg Hurley.[2][3] Her father, a lapsed Catholic of Irish descent, was a major in the British Army, while her mother, an Anglican, was a schoolteacher at Kempshott Infant School.[3] Her older sister Debbie is a literary agent and younger brother Michael works as an engineer. Hurley took ballet classes as a child. She went to Kempshott Junior School and Infants school and the Harriet Costello School, now known as Costello Technology College. She later attended Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke, for one year, followed by Basingstoke College of Technology, and later won a scholarship to the London Studio Centre.[4] Whilst in her teens and before she was in the public eye, she became involved with punk fashion, dying her hair pink and piercing her nose.[5] She associated with New Age Travellers, who sat under The Buttercross monument and the grounds of the Cathedral in Winchester, near Hurley's home.