JASMINE: ‘I’ve got lumps & bumps, but I’m embracing it!’

A Place In The Sun presenter, Jasmine Harman, opens up about her changing attitude towards her body

She hit the headlines last week after posting a photo showing off her “cellulite and varicose veins” on social media “in a bid to keep it real”, and after spending years being obsessed with her weight, property presenter Jasmine Harman admits she’s finally reached a turning point.

Jasmine, 47, tells Closer, “When I first saw how I looked from behind, I thought, ‘Oh my god’, and almost deleted the picture. But then a voice inside my mind said, ‘Sod it!’ I’ve got lumps, bumps and cellulite in places and that’s reality. It’s easy to fall into the trap of only posting the good bits on social media and I don’t want to add to the unrealistic expectations that already exist on there, so I went for it. I had messages from people to say thank you for keeping it honest, it was so worth it.”

GAME-CHANGER

The star, who shares daughter, Joy, nine, and son, Albion, six, with husband and TV cameraman Jon Boast, adds, “Being in a swimsuit is nerve-wracking and doesn’t come naturally to me, I have to psyche myself up. I’ve got imperfections, but I’ve learned that whatever you’re embarrassed about – rather than be ashamed – just put it out there. Two years ago, someone asked if I was pregnant, and instead of getting down or dwelling, I just owned the comment and explained that I wasn’t. Doing that was a game-changer for me.”

COMPARISONS

In fact, Jasmine says embracing her imperfections is part of a new-found attitude to fly the flag for body positivity and a bid to stop the negative self-talk that’s plagued her for years. She candidly explains, “Definitely for a large proportion of my adult life, I’ve been dissatisfied with how my body is, been obsessed with numbers on the scale and had the magic size in my head. But lately, I’ve started to care less about what others think, and age has really helped me value myself rather than my looks or figure. I’ve reached a point where I want to stop aspiring for something that’s out of reach. When I look back at photos of myself much younger, I think, ‘Why I was so hung up on this or that’ – I looked great!”

Jasmine, who’s a size 12-14, adds, “I’m not 100 per cent confident in how I look, or as thin as I want to be, but I don’t want to give myself as hard a time as I used to. These days I’m inclined to think, ‘This is the size I am, like it or lump it!’ Since being a teenager, I’ve always been reluctant to show my tummy or bum, but it’s about looking at the positives too. I like that I’m tall, have long legs and slender arms. I often joke to Laura Hamilton [her co-star] that I want her abs, and she says, ‘I want your legs!’”

When it comes to looking after herse