Natalie Cassidy lost 4st in just three months as she prepared to release her Then and Now Workout DVD, only to find herself gaining weight shortly after the project
EastEnders icon Natalie Cassidy admits she was “hurt” as she addresses the backlash to her fitness DVD after her 4st weight loss. The former soapstar says she dropped the weight in just three months after signing a deal to front the project.
Natalie Cassidy’s Then and Now Workout sold around 200,000 copies in its first week alone and netted the star a £100,000 payday. At the time she thought it would be a “good way to get fit”.
And Natalie herself even managed to lose 4st in just three months by following her regime. But she admits it was “too much too soon” and she eventually found herself putting the weight back on.
It sparked a series of “nasty comments” aimed at the star. Speaking to Bella magazine, Natalie, 42, said: “I’ve normally got skin like an elephant, but some of the remarks did hurt me.
“I started taking laxatives to try and lose some of the weight. I wasn’t kind to my body.”
Natalie says she eventually began “eating sensibly” and started exercising regularly. “For the last eight or nine years, I’ve been around the 10-stone mark. And I’m happy with that,” she added.
Natalie, who recently quit her role as Sonia Fowler after 32 years, has previously opened up about the aftermath of her fitness project on Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum Happy Baby. She says she “ate and ate and ate” after the instructors finished her programme.
She said: “They left and then it was over. I just ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and again, if you link it up, I’d lost mum at 19, so all of that weight stuff was happening through all of that time.
“Silly decisions were being made, shouldn’t have done that, not the right guidance, but if someone says ‘Here’s a hundred grand, do you want to lose some weight?’, I was like, ‘Yeah I’ll take that’.”
Natalie, who has recently released a memoir Happy Days, believes having children meant she became less worried about her weight. She added: “The idea of worrying about what I looked like fell to the wayside.”
Natalie however says she is “worried” about the increase in weight loss jabs. She said: “There was a lot of body positivity, a stage of real body positivity, and not a lot of weight chat.
“It feels like the weight chat just sort of went and I think there’s been a big focus on losing the weight now, which is a worry. Especially if you’ve got daughters.”
Natalie went on to say she “loves food” but now likes to do “everything in moderation”. Although she occasionally finds herself “feeling wobbly” and decides to walk more.