Fitness fanatic Gemma Atkinson has spoken out about weight and body image in a frank interview.
Gemma, 35, says she put on weight when she trained for Strictly Come Dancing in 2017.
The Bury actress and host of the Hits Radio drivetime show says she let her diet slide 'massively' during her time on the BBC dance contest in 2017, which she puts down to training above a chocolate shop.
She said in an interview with Women's Health: "I think I’m the only contestant who gained weight during Strictly and I always say that openly because the training is hard, it’s intense, but because I train differently anyway, my body kind of went backwards a bit and the main reason was because I let me diet slip massively on Strictly.
"We trained above the Cadbury’s shop, so I had a Toblerone nearly every day, fast food, anything that was just quick and easy really.
"I think I put on about six or seven pounds by the end of it.”
The mother-of-one has been back on our screens for re-reruns of old Hollyoaks episodes as bullied teen Lisa Hunter in the Channel Four soap - and she was stunned to be called 'fat' on Instagram.
“For Hollyoaks turning 25 years old, they’ve been re-running some episodes, and they’ve had a week of my episodes, and people have actually DM’d me," she explained.
"A guy DM’d me, and he said 'wow, I never realised at the time, but you were fat in Hollyoaks weren’t you'?
"I went back to him and I said ‘well, I was 15, so I was chubbier than what I am now, but please, please don’t let your daughter think that that’s your idea of fat. She will have problems for the rest of her life if that’s the case.”
Gemma, whose partner is Strictly professional dancer Gorka Marquez, says she worries for their one-year-old daughter Mia growing up in the modern world.
She said: “One of my biggest fears for Mia growing up, especially in the environment we’re all in now, with the Instagrams and the filters and the quick fix, these jabs and pills and stuff.
"It terrifies me that she’ll come to me and say ‘mum, I’ve read that if I do this injection it will make me thin’.”
The former Hollyoaks and Emmerdale star says Mia loves the gym already, just like her mum, and she watches her parents work out.
“She learned to walk in there to be honest," said Gemma.
"She does watch us train, and again it’s great, I’m very mindful, I love the fact that she’s growing up watching me in the gym.
"I don’t want her to grow up watching me moaning about what I’m eating or covering up a bit of cellulite or moaning about my weight and stuff.”
Listen to the full Gemma Atkinson interview in the Women’s Health Going for Goal podcast, available now.
