Steps singer Claire Richards on how she broke free from extreme eating and anxieties about her body
EXCLUSIVE interview
Having been in the public eye since her teens, Claire Richards has faced weight battles and criticism that put both her mental and physical health at risk. Now, at the age of 46, the singer is in the best place she’s ever been.
In 1997 the then 19-year-old landed a place in an exciting new pop group, Steps. It was a dream come true – but little did she know her impending fame was about to kick off a dangerous battle with her weight. ‘Back then there was a thing for female pop stars to look a certain way and there was a prototype everyone had to conform to,’ Claire tells Woman’s Own. ‘I wanted to be in a band so much that I did anything I had to do.’
That included going on a strict diet, which required her stick to a 900-calorie per day limit and often ‘not really eating’, despite being a slender size 10. Constant body shaming led to her developing serious eating issues that would continue for the next 25 years. Thankfully, that has stopped. ‘If someone told me [to lose weight] now I would tell them where to go,’ she says resolutely.
OVEREATING
When Steps split in 2001, a mixture of boredom and depression meant Claire’s eating spiralled out of control and soon she was buying size 20 clothes. ‘I managed to kind of stop what I was doing to myself but that went from not eating at all to overeating. I spent a lot of time wearing baggy clothes and not wanting to go out much,’ she recalls. ‘I’ve gone from being dangerously thin to obese and I do believe it’s all part of the same... if it’s an eating disorder, it’s one extreme to the other.’
In 2017, Claire famously lost 6st, dropping back to a size 10-12 by eating healthily and upping her exercise. And today, she’s feeling great. ‘I know what suits me and what doesn’t when it comes to clothes now and that makes a huge difference. I accentuate my good bits and for the first time ever I’m getting my legs out on stage,’ she says. ‘I wore a lace catsuit for a performance recently and I would never have done that in the old days.
‘That was my problem for so long; worrying way too much about what other people thought. It’s something I still battle with at times.
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