Emma Willis has said she was asked to lose weight for her career, but refused to bow to the pressure.
The Big Brother presenter, 42, said she has been advised to shed some pounds on a couple of occasions.
She told Fearne Cotton on her Happy Place podcast: “I remember being told that I had to lose weight. It was quite early on. I was about 18. I was in Australia.
“My rational head was kind of going, ‘Oh, God. Oh, God. I need to lose weight’, but I was living with a chef, and it was very difficult. I just kind of thought, ‘You know what? I just can’t be bothered’.
“I just kind of carried on eating. I had a nice time, and then I went home.
“I think, obviously, there were times when it would get to me, but there’s nothing that’s really stayed in my brain where it obviously affected me so much that it caused an issue for me.”
The mother-of-three also told Cotton that she sometimes has off days and does not like what she sees in the mirror.
But she said she is still not a big fan of altering photographs.
Willis said: “When I go on social media now, if I’m on Instagram, I look at a picture and rather than going, ‘Oh, that looks amazing’, I go, ‘Right’. I zoom in. I’m like, ‘How many filters are on that? Any stretching going on?’ Again, I’m picking apart a picture not believing that it’s genuine or real, because so much can be done now.
“I’m a real supporter of let’s not retouch.
“I know everything gets retouched, and I don’t want to look tired in a picture either if it’s going on the front of a magazine, but I remember just after I had Ace, I was doing the cover of a magazine for a photo shoot. It was six weeks after I’d given birth, and I had a top hat on and just braces and trousers, but everything was covered, but my tummy was out.
“They were like, ‘Thank you so much for doing it. It’s a really good kind of message’. I went, ‘It is, but you can’t retouch my tummy’. They were like, ‘Oh, okay. Are you sure? Are you happy with that?’ I’m like, ‘Yes. Why would I want you to retouch me looking like I haven’t had a baby six weeks after I’ve had a baby?’ They were like, ‘That’s just a breath of fresh air, brilliant. Thank you’.”
“Keep those little lines around your eyes,” added the star. “It’s what we look like in real life.”