Denise Welch has revealed the touching real reason behind her sexy - and humorous - bikini videos.
The Geordie actress and Loose Women star has posted a number of clips of herself on holiday and around the pool in her swimming costume.
The videos, filmed by her husband Lincoln Townley, see her looking sensational in her swimwear as she larks about cracking jokes.
In one video, Denise pretended to be on the phone to an LA record company who want her to release a rap single before her phone hilariously rings to expose her 'lie'.
In others, she walks around her holiday villa with her carrier bags in her hands, does her best catwalk strut as she jokingly announces she didn't know her husband was filming her, or poses up by some 'ruins'.
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And while the videos are a lot of fun - and show off Denise's incredible figure - there's actually a really touching reason behind her posting them.
Speaking exclusively to Mirror Online at the British LGBT Awards, the 60-year-old laughed: "I've got more attention from those videos than I've got for any TV show I've ever done in my 60 years.
"I have been on quite a journey and I've been sober seven years and I was very quick to realise that I was in a place where I started to replace alcohol addiction with food addiction and I was lucky enough that Lighterlife came to me."
The mum-of-two added: "We live in a nation of fat-shamers and I try to do my bit to help people who are struggling to lose weight. It's all easy for people in the public eye to say 'Eat less, move more', we all know that, it's not f**king rocket science but not everybody can do that, some people need an emotional crutch.
"You can give up alcohol, you can give up drugs, you can give up cigarettes but you can't give up food so you have to change your relationship with it and that's what I learned to do."
She added: "I know empowering women is becoming one of those things that I can see people rolling their eyes at but when you get to a certain age women feel like they become invisible, especially in the media, that's why I did the Calendar Girls The Musical I just did because it was about empowering older women, getting their kit off for a good cause.
"People used to go out that theatre crying their eyes out with joy and feeling lifted up so if I can do a few daft videos to go, 'Look I've got a tummy, I've got cellulite , my boobs are round my ankles without the right bra, but I still don't think I'm looking bad for an old bird', and people get in touch with me saying my videos have lifted them up and they're going to put a bathing costume on and go down that beach, that's why I do that."
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Former Coronation Street and Waterloo Road star Denise also spoke about the dark side of social media.
She told us: "Social media is really funny because you have to use it for good. I tend to look at the comments left by my followers and they're always 99% fantastic, totally and utterly supportive of me and everything I do and stand for.
"The other day a local paper picked up a story about something I'd said about empowering older women and it showed a picture of me in one of my swimsuits and I looked at the feed of people commenting on that and dear god, I'm 60, I can deal with it but some of these young kids going through that every day, and of course they can't stop looking at it.
"I try to use social media for good and I don't just share my successes and my family successes, I also share the dark times which is why I talk about mental illness, which is why some people in the media who have a loud mouth and a big following need to shut the f**k up, because I'll tell you what this is all about visibility and anyone who is making sly nasty comments about this community and the mental health community, and when you are in the LGBT community and have mental health issues that's a double whammy, and we need to be lifting people up not bashing them down.
"That's why I get very angry about certain people who have a big voice. People say just ignore it but if we just ignored it there would be no change."
Denise also spoke about her love and respect of the LGBT community.
She said: "I love being an ally and I can't understand how people can't be an ally."
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