From not being able to buy clothes in a ‘normal’ shop and struggling with her self-esteem, our columnist, Vanessa Feltz, reveals how she’s transformed into a model at 61
NOW
I’ve been queen of the yo-yo dieters. I’ve rocked a generous size 22 and occasionally strutted my stuff in a size 10. I’ve been so ecstatic to have spent a year dieting and exercising five stone away I’ve celebrated with a bowl of chocolate mousse and put the whole lot back again in what feels like minutes. I’ve come back from holiday to find my ballooning bottom billowing from my swimming costume, snapped by paparazzi and emblazoned across the front page of a publication – described in print as “the woman who ate her audience”.
All my weight loss and gain happened in the full glare of publicity. In 2004 I even shed two stone on TV’s Celebrity Fit Club. Jubilantly hoovering up the canapés at the wrap party, most participating celebs had put on four pounds before the car arrived to take us home. It’s hard to be body confident when strangers are yelling, “Vanessa move away from that Twix”. It feels as if the entire nation thinks you’re an out-of-control fatty, who should check in to a clinic and have her jaw wired together. Having to fly all the way to the USA to find enough plus-size outfits to wear on my Oprah-style ITV Vanessa Show didn’t help. Not being able to walk into a “normal” shop and pick up a dress that fits plays havoc with your self-esteem.
It’s well-documented that in 2010 I had a gastric band fitted and in 2019, when it became embedded in my liver, I had it
