Gemma Atkinson was trolled over her weight after classic episodes of Hollyoaks featuring her as a 15-year-old aired recently on television. The model, actress and radio host, who starred as Lisa Hunter in the soap franchise between 2001 and 2006, said someone messaged her on social media after her old scenes broadcast on Channel 4.
Gemma, 35, said one man had told her she had been “fat” during her time in the series.
Speaking to Women’s Health UK magazine, she said: “For Hollyoaks turning 25 years old, they’ve been re-running some episodes, and they’ve had a week of my episodes, and people have actually DM’d me.
“A guy DM’d me, and he said: ‘Wow, I never realised at the time, but you were fat in Hollyoaks weren’t you?’
“I went back to him and I said: ‘Well, I was 15, so I was chubbier than what I am now, but please, please don’t let your daughter think that that’s your idea of fat.
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“She will have problems for the rest of her life if that’s the case.”‘
Gemma, who is mother to one-year-old daughter Mia with Strictly Come Dancing’s Gorka Marquez, said she worried about her growing up in the modern world.
The star stated: “One of my biggest fears for Mia growing up, especially in the environment we’re all in now, with the Instagrams and the filters and the quick fix, these jabs and pills and stuff.
“It terrifies me that she’ll come to me and say: ‘Mum, I’ve read that if I do this injection it will make me thin.”‘
She said: “I think I’m the only contestant who gained weight during Strictly and I always say that openly because the training is hard, it’s intense.
“But because I train differently anyway, my body kind of went backwards a bit and the main reason was because I let my diet slip massively on Strictly.
“We trained above the Cadbury’s shop, so I had a Toblerone nearly every day, fast food, anything that was just quick and easy really.
“I think I put on about six or seven pounds by the end of it.”