People who lose a lot of weight used to be congratulated for hitting the treadmill and working hard on their diet.
Now, they face questions about weight-loss drugs – and presenter Alison Hammond has had her fill.
The Great British Bake Off star has shed 13 and a half stone, but her astonishing achievement has been marred by persistent questions about whether she injected herself with weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic or Wegovy.
‘It worries me that the jab keeps getting brought up,’ she tells me at the Women of the Year Awards at the Royal Lancaster hotel in London.
‘Every single time I have a conversation in public, that is the question thrown at me.’
Asked if she had used such drugs, she insists: ‘Absolutely not. I’m not a follower of what people do. I do what I need to do for me.’
The Birmingham-born television personality, 50, hit 30 stone at her heaviest, but now weighs around 16 and a half stone.
She does, however, leave the door open to using such drugs in the future. ‘I don’t like the fact that you have to say, “Oh, no, I wouldn’t have the jab ever”. Maybe next year. Do you know what? I might start jabbing up. What does it matter how people lose weight.
Alice Hammond in 2022 and right, yesterday at the Women of the Year awards
‘Would you rather me die from being obese?’
Ms Hammond decided to lose weight after the death in 2020 of her mother, Maria, who had been worried about her daughter’s diagnosis of pre-diabetes.
The presenter has previously told she shed pounds with what many would call an unconventional fat-loss diet – by not cutting anything out, but simply by eating in moderation.
She typically starts her day with a full English breakfast, opts for Caribbean food for lunch when she is working, and enjoys a homemade meal for dinner – such as chicken fried rice.
She adds: ‘I’m exactly the same person, be it bigger or smaller. There’s no difference to Alison at any size.’
Cat: I was Carly’s vain lover
Cat Stevens claims to have solved the mystery of which of Carly Simon’s lovers inspired her song You’re So Vain – saying it was him all along.
Stevens, 77, whose hits include Morning Has Broken, and Simon, 82, had a passionate affair in the early 1970s.
He says: ‘I never understood the endless hide-and-seek of finding out who You’re So Vain was about. Naturally, I knew it was me!’ Writing in his new memoir, Cat On The Road To Findout, he says: ‘The affair enriched both our repertoires.’
Simon has said the second verse of You’re So Vain is about Hollywood star Warren Beatty, but refuses to reveal the inspiration for the rest of the song.
Ready for your new racket, Boris (from Becker baby No5)?
Already a father of four by three different women, Boris Becker clearly can’t wait for the birth of his fifth child.
The ex-Wimbledon champ, 57, proudly shared this photograph of Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, 34, whom he wed a year ago, showing off her baby bump.
‘Enjoying the last rays of sunshine,’ says Becker from Portofino, north-west Italy, where he and Lilian, a political risk analyst from the African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe, exchanged vows a year ago.
In 2022, Becker was convicted in the UK of hiding assets worth £2.5million, despite declaring himself bankrupt. He served eight months of a two-and-a-half-year sentence before being deported to Germany.
Boris and Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro on holiday in Italy
No dialogue in Lindsay’s dinner script
Prolific actress Lindsay Duncan has made a good living from her voice, securing two Olivier Awards and a Tony Award.
But now the 74-year-old has revealed that she prefers saying nothing at all. ‘When I was young, I felt compelled to make a contribution to the conversation, no matter how meaningless,’ she says over dinner at the Arlington restaurant in St James’s, central London.
Lindsay, who is married to the actor Hilton McRae, explains: ‘A friend said over dinner, “You don’t always have to say something”. I think he was right. I am still trying.’
Why did Meg’s make-up pal wipe clip?
He’s one of the Duchess of Sussex’s most loyal friends and outspoken cheerleaders, so Daniel Martin caused intrigue yesterday when he deleted an online video about their trip to France.
In the clip, the make-up artist explained how he achieved Meghan’s look for the Balenciaga show during Paris Fashion Week, saying his work ‘made her look even more juicy and glowy’.
‘We just wanted to keep everything light, fresh, and radiant,’ he gushed. ‘She just flew in, and your skin gets dehydrated from the plane, so I just wanted to bring some hydration back into her skin and just bring some life to it.’
Martin’s deletion of the post led to speculation that Meghan was displeased with it. But a source tells me it was wiped because he didn’t include all the beauty products he used, and an updated version would follow.
After that, Georgia, love, can you make the tea…
As a successful model and daughter of one of the world’s most famous rock stars, Georgia May Jagger is used to being pampered.
Georgia May Jagger washing customers’ hair at one of her Bleach London salons
But she isn’t afraid to give customers at her hair salon a pampering, too. She shared this shot of her washing a client’s locks at one of her two Bleach London sites.
Georgia, 33, who gave birth to her son Dean a year ago, is the daughter of Rolling Stone Sir Mick Jagger and Texan model Jerry Hall.
Starring with Daniel Day-Lewis – who’s come out of retirement to appear in his 27-year-old son Ronan’s film Anemone – Sean Bean highlights how he approaches his roles differently.
While Day-Lewis, 68, famously immerses himself in his characters on and off screen for weeks, bluff Yorkshireman Bean, 66, explains: ‘I don’t like to carry it [the part] around with me. I like to go home, have some fish and chips, something light on the telly.
We all have our approaches, none are what you should do or shouldn’t do.’
