Myleene Klass Defends Kym Marsh After Nigel Lythgoe’s Weight Jibes in Resurfaced Popstars Clip

Myleene Klass has defended her pal Kym Marsh on Instagram on Monday after Nigel Lythgoe’s weight jibes to her on Popstars resurfaced in a video. 

The singers, both rose to fame on the ITV series Popstars in 2001 and became members of the band Hear’Say. 

During their time on the show, panellist Nigel criticised Kym’s looks and instructed her to ‘lose some weight’ as he quizzed her over her diet and fitness.  

In the clip, Kym asked, ‘Do you think I’m fat?’, Nigel replied, ‘I think you’ve put weight on over Christmas, are you exercising, is the diet right?’

Kym said, ‘I’ve just started it today’, prompting Nigel to add, ‘You need to lose some weight you’re going on show six weeks from now, six weeks.’

Myleene has now re-shared the video to her Instagram Stories and said being fat shamed was a ‘daily’ occurrence and stars were often weighed on set. 

She wrote: ‘Yes Daily. Stylist often cut the sizes out of some bands outfits to hide the ‘shame’ of ‘double digits’. 

‘My Hear’say diaries are FULL of this s***. The boys were also shamed. Remember, TFI Friday had scales on set.’

Kym has been open about her struggles with self-image in the past, saying she became bulimic after she started comparing herself to smaller girls while at stage school when she was younger. 

Nigel previously defended his comments about Kym on the show, saying: ‘[She’s] looking fabulous now, acting brilliantly, and she’s made a huge career for herself.’ 

Hear’Say formed on ITV show Popstars in 2001 and found success with their number one hit Pure and Simple.

Their first album Popstars was a huge hit but their success quickly dwindled by the time they released their second album Everybody.

They split up in October 2002, less than two years after being put together on Popstars and cited ‘abuse from the public’ at the time as the primary reason behind the breakup.

Speaking last year, about what pressures she felt as a young person in the spotlight, Myleene told Loose Women viewers their management would ‘control how much we were eating’ as they were scared they would become ‘fat’. 

She said: ‘I mean the scrutiny for a start. My daughter is 17 and if I look at one of my band members Suzie she was 18, so that’s one year away.

‘I think if someone put my daughter through that level of scrutiny or pressure…’

Although she admitted that things have got a lot better since then, Myleene went on to add: ‘Some of the experiences that we went through we were in no way equipped for it.

‘We were just five kids in a room at the end of the day – not unlike these five kids in a room and that’s all you have.’

She shared the shocking revelation that her band had tour managers ‘clear out our mini bars and food because they thought were trying to control how much we were eating because they thought we were just too fat.’

‘Before we walked into a studio our tour manager would get a big bag and clear out our food, treating us like we were children because we couldn’t be trusted and we had an image of this perfection, this role to fulfil.’

Recalling another experience, Myleene quipped: ‘Somebody drew a circle around my cellulite while I was on holiday…

‘On the front of every magazine there was a huge circle and my cellulite, we wouldn’t allow that today.’

Last year, Myleene also recalled how she was publicly told to lose weight for her role in West End musical Miss Saigon aged 18.

The TV personality made the revelation while starring on I’m A Celebrity All Stars as she had a heart to heart with campmate Carol Vorderman, 62.

Myleene explained: ‘When I joined the Miss Saigon cast, I was lined up with all the other girls and I was told, ‘You’ve got to lose weight’.

She said the rude remark was made in front of her 24 male cast members who starred in the production as American G.I’s.

Adding: ‘I wasn’t pulled aside and I just stood there and it swallowed me up’.

Myleene appeared in the tragic love story set in the Vietnam war alongside Jonathan Pryce, 75, which premiered at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1989.

Later in the conversation, she spoke about being body-shamed when joining band Hear’Say in 2001, she went on: ‘And then I got in the band and I had other band managers coming up saying, ‘You’re the fattest band in pop’.

‘So again, rather than the fact we had talent, I could read any music, play most instruments you put in front of me – it came back to ‘fattest band in pop’,’ she added.