When a staggeringly slender Emily Atack posted pictures of her family’s Christmas, the last thing she would have expected from her 1.8million Instagram followers was a barrage of questions rather than compliments.
They all wanted to know how the once fulsome actress – she of the bouncy bosoms in the naked tennis scene in the hit TV show Rivals – had become so slim? And, more particularly, was it Mounjaro or Ozempic?
Presumably her fans had been hit by a mixture of shock and confusion – even, dare I say it, a bitter hint of betrayal.
Because Emily has long been acclaimed for promoting body positivity, loving yourself whatever shape you are – and not giving in to the vitriolic monsters on social media who called her fat.
She would never resort to slimming jabs, would she? And, to be fair, we’re none the wiser as to whether she actually has, because she hasn’t commented on the matter.
It could, of course, be pure self-discipline – turning away from the biscuit barrel. But nothing will shake us from our suspicions in this age of weight-loss injections.
Especially since she posted pictures of herself yesterday having her trademark blonde locks shorn into a fabulous short bob, wearing the skinniest of skinny jeans that show she’s half the woman she was.
Actress Emily Atack posted pictures of her family’s Christmas on Instagram and was met with a barrage of questions from her followers about whether she is using weight-loss jabs
Emily posted pictures of herself yesterday having her hair cut into a bob – and she was wearing the skinniest of skinny jeans that showed she’s half the woman she was, writes Amanda Platell
I adore Emily and would hesitate before saying anything that could be seen as an attack on her. But don’t her fans have a point? Doesn’t the way she’s parading her new, incredibly slim body seem a tad hypocritical for a woman who has for so long ignored the online haters launching into her for being overweight?
Ever since she starred so brilliantly as Charlotte Hinchcliffe, aged 18, in The Inbetweeners, she has been subject to abuse.
‘It was when I started doing The Inbetweeners that people online started calling me fat, and that really surprised me because I’d never thought about my weight in a negative way before,’ she said.
She has fought off body-shaming constantly throughout her career, championing women with normal curves and fuller figures. And it just feels as though, by flaunting her new look in this way, she’s letting her fans down.
Especially as around 38 per cent of all English women aged 16-24 are now technically overweight – for which read curvy and content. Emily was their heroine; living proof that you could be voluptuous and still gorgeous and successful. Now she’s suddenly a skinny minnie.
As one disappointed fan wrote: ‘You are beautiful but please don’t feel the need to go super skinny as you are a beautiful girl and role model.’ Another said: ‘Wow, you’ve lost your beautiful curves.’
A curvier Emily in the naked tennis scene in the hit TV show Rivals
One more follower commented on The Daily Mail website: ‘Before the skinny jabs all these celebs made out they loved being plus-sized and championed it. Now they stick a needle in to lose weight they’ve soon changed their tune.’
This is the Emily who used her platform to call out fat-shamers on social media for years. And who, following her experience of media scrutiny on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2018, stated she would never use a weight-loss app again.
But isn’t posting pictures of her new body in all its slender glory simply going to attract all that media scrutiny once more?
For my part, I prefer the curvy Emily we saw in Rivals. Emily in all her semi-naked glory, exuding body confidence by prancing about naked on the tennis court with Rivals’ smouldering sex god Rupert Campbell-Black, played by Alex Hassell.
And, judging by the response to her new slim frame on social media, I’m not alone. Will Emily tell her adoring army of Instagram followers if she has used the jabs? I do hope she’ll come clean and tell us.
Given that she’s no longer our goddess of body positivity, surely it’s the least she could do.
