Made In Chelsea’s Louise Thompson reveals how ditching the party girl life allowed her to find a new man, a new body and a new focus
THIRTY minutes into Louise Thompson’s first Fabulous cover shoot, there’s a hitch.
The Made In Chelsea stalwart is wearing nothing but a tiny nude thong – and she isn’t feeling entirely comfortable about it.
Understandably so.
The naked photo shoot concept is reserved for only the bravest of stars who are willing to strip down to a G-string concealed by strategically placed hands in order to give the impression of full nudity.
Yet here lies the problem – Louise is braver than even the bravest.
“I can’t relax when I’m having to think about where I have to put my hands,” she says.
“I just want the pictures to be the best they can be.”
And with that, she disappears to a corner of the studio, ditches her Boux Avenue undies and returns to the set completely starkers.
And boy oh boy, what a bod. It’s enough to make a Sports Illustrated model weep with envy.
But although Louise is undoubtedly proud of her muscular size-6 physique, her poise is indicative of something deeper.
“I am confident in myself. It’s why I wasn’t too nervous about taking my clothes off today,” she explains after the shoot, tucking into a flaked salmon wrap.
“It’s taken a year to get to where I am now, but in the beginning it was more of a mental transformation in the way that I treat my body. The results followed afterwards.”
Before her new health routine (on a “good week” she cracks out four two-hour gym sessions), Louise’s attitude to exercise was “quite erratic” and ruled by her relationship status.
“If I went through a break-up, I’d spend a lot of time in the gym – if I was single I wanted to get in shape and exercise made me feel better,” she says.
“But then I’d feel comfortable in a new relationship and eat a ton of junk food.
"There was a lot of partying, too. I treated my body with no respect whatsoever.
"I’d have two or three-day benders at the weekends then feel really low afterwards.
“I was completely reckless. I’d leave clothes and handbags in clubs and I’d lose a phone a month.
"Alcohol had a really adverse reaction on my mental state. When you’re yo-yoing like that, it’s really hard to even know what you want from life.”
Louise, 27, drops her eyes to her lap.
Did she go through a form of depression?
“I definitely think I was depressed for a period,” she says.
“But it’s really good to self-reflect and see how far I’ve come. I was completely out of control, and now I’m really in control.
"My life is so much better. I’m not even content – I’m elated.
"I don’t regret [my old life] because everything leads to the place you’re supposed to be in, but I did waste a lot of time in a bad place.”
I definitely think I was depressed for a time
Relationships were her trigger – more specifically, feeling unable to function without being in one.
“I was quite co-dependent,” she admits.
“Whenever I’d go through a break-up, I wouldn’t know how to handle it.”
Louise, who admits to having only “one or two” one-night stands, has had back-to-back boyfriends since the age of 16.
The most recent include Made In Chelsea stars past and present, namely Spencer Matthews, Jamie Laing, Andy Jordan and Alik Alfus, who she split from in May 2016 after a two-year romance before quickly finding love with ex-Abercrombie & Fitch model and sometime MIC star Ryan Libbey, 27.
“I’ve [been in love] quite a few times,” says Louise, counting on her fingers.
“Ryan, Alik, Andy…weirdly, I don’t think I ever loved Spencer. There was a guy from Edinburgh and my first love. Five times. That’s ridiculous!”
A former pupil at the prestigious Downe House boarding school, Louise was a year into a geography degree at the University of Edinburgh when she joined E4’s Made In Chelsea after being hounded by show executives.
They believed her previous romance with Spencer Matthews and friendships with cast members Rosie Fortescue, Caggie Dunlop, Hugo Taylor and Millie Mackintosh would make cracking telly.
They were right.
The show recently returned to screens with spin-off Made In Chelsea: Ibiza, and the 14th season launches next month.
But as Louise initially juggled university and reality television, she had no dreams of stardom.
“I never joined the show to get famous. I didn’t have an agent for ages – I just wanted to be a normal person.
I still thought I’d film but have a serious job in the City.”
So when did her plan change?
“When I’d been in a shower scene on television and I didn’t think I’d ever be taken seriously in a boardroom. It was horrible,” she says, referencing the moment in series four when she and Spencer stripped for a steamy opening sequence.
“Now I would never agree to do something like that, but back then I was really innocent and so naive. I would just do whatever I was told. Grow a backbone!”
Modern-day Louse is assertive, at times brilliantly sarcastic, and honest to a tee.
She readily admits that she may be a “tiny bit bitter” about the latest batch of MIC cast mates, who she reckons are "confident and cocky” and only in it for the fame.
She is also refreshingly straight-up about not ruling out surgery in the future.
“Post-pregnancy, I’d maybe get a boob job if everything went completely pear-shaped,” she says.
Which brings us neatly on to the topic of motherhood.
Co-star Stephanie Pratt, 31, recently predicted that her pint-sized pal would be the next to follow in Binky Felstead’s footsteps and have a baby.
“No,” counters Louise.
“I really admire Binky and the family she has, but I can’t imagine myself having a kid for at least another two or three years, purely because I’ve got projects that I need to finish.
"Me and Ryan will probably get married first and then look to plan a baby.”
It wasn’t until Louise began dating Ryan last year after booking him for a PT session that she felt compelled to transform her lifestyle.
“My whole attitude towards my body has changed, and he’s definitely been a really good influence,” she says, rattling through a standard gym session, which is low on cardio and big on weight-training.
She begins with a 10-minute treadmill incline walk and finishes with sprints.
“I love weighted squats, medicine ball Russian twists and unusual things like handstand press-ups. But the exercise that has transformed my body is the deadlift.”
To demonstrate, Louise gets up off the sofa and stands with feet hip-width apart, leaning forward with her back perfectly straight to grab an imaginary bar.
“A lot of women are scared of this one because the equipment is in the ‘manly’ section of the gym, but it’s good for your arse and you’re tensing your whole core.”
When pushed for time, Louise does a home workout, with mat exercises including knee tucks, flutter kicks, leg raises and an abs session that’s clearly working wonders.
“A lot of people talk about my abs. If you want to get abs, do as many reps as you can until you feel a sharp pain. I can do hundreds.”
Obviously and crucially, fitness isn’t a chore for her.
“I enjoy it. A lot of people associate exercise with a horrible time, but I look forward to it.”
Is she a fitness fanatic?
“No, I’m not addicted because I have lots of days where I don’t do any.”
Surely the endorphin buzz is moreish?
“The adrenalin is probably the best feeling ever.”
Er, ever?
Louise giggles.
“Yeah, probably even better than sex. Maybe Ryan’s not doing a very good job! We both now prioritise exercise over sex.”
Louise confesses she was initially turned off by Ryan’s clean-living existence and Ken-doll physique (“that was never my type”), but she caught the exercise bug and now the couple are the yin to each other’s yang.
“We’ve both balanced and met in the middle. I’ve taught him to be a bit more naughty and he’s taught me to be a bit more straight-laced.”
She stops for a moment, as though the penny has just dropped.
“Actually, that’s what happiness is. It’s about honouring yourself.”
For this reason, Louise nourishes her body with only “food with nutritional benefits”.
That’s see-ya later to crisps, pizza, white bread and the like, and hello to foods including eggs, fish, lean meat, fruit, veg and, er, Reese’s Pieces.
“There’s peanut butter in them, so it has a small protein percentage in it!” laughs Louise, whose only other food guideline is intuition.
“I only eat when I’m hungry,” she explains.
“People who say: ‘Eat three meals a day’ or ‘Breakfast is the most important meal of the day’ – that doesn’t apply to me at all.
"I’m never hungry until about midday and then I’ll have a bit of lunch, then a big dinner.”
What about the mornings she beasts the gym?
“I like working out on an empty stomach. I function better in the gym on less food,” she says, before hurriedly emphasising that when she and Ryan go out, they “eat a lot of food” and “always have pudding”.
At 7st 8lb and a petite 5ft-nothing, she’s leaner and significantly stronger than this time last year – lie her flat and you could drain dishes on her abs.
“My size has stayed exactly the same, but muscle is heavier than fat, so it’s transferred over.
"My waist is definitely smaller, my butt is a bit bigger and my boobs have shrunk completely – I’ve dropped two sizes to a small B.
"But I’ve come to terms with it. I used to hate my calves and arms, but now I like how athletic they look.”
For a 360° gawp at the results, head to Louise’s Instagram page, where amid a plethora of half-naked bikini selfies you’ll find bonkers PDA-filled workout videos in which Ryan turns Louise intoa human weight for all manner of exercises.
Louise shrieks when we question whether the rumour circulated by her younger brother Sam, 25, is true – that she hires a photographer and lighting crew to shoot her content.
“Noo! That is not true. Sam’s always winding me up. The truth is I have invested in a camera and self-shoot everything,” says Louise.
So how does she capture her and Ryan smooching?
“I have a selfie stand!” She flops back on the sofa, reddening cheeks buried in her hands. “That’s the least cool thing in the world.”
What is undeniably cool is Louise’s new-found status as a fitness aficionado.
She has her own sportswear line Pocket Sport, is an ambassador for Myprotein, has a fitness book Body Positive coming out next year, and is one of the faces of Simple skincare.
All this as well as her unofficial job of keeping kid bro Sam in check.
Last month he finished third on Celebrity Big Brother behind winner Sarah Harding and runner-up, former X Factor singer Amelia Lily, who he formed a close bond with before admitting he had some “stuff to sort out outside the house” – mainly his relationship with ex-girlfriend Tiffany Watson, 23.
For Louise, there’s no doubt about which girl Sam should choose – neither.
“My family think Sam should be on his own for a period so he can mature. His downside is he does have tendencies to be lazy, and that’s not going to get him very far. This is the encouragement he needs.”
But what of her own love life? Ryan – who she hopes is “Mr Forever” – has moved into the Fulham home she shares with Sam, and it all sounds hunky-dory.
But is there a part of Louise that misses gorging on chocolate cake, going wild on a drunken night out or skipping the gym to slob on the sofa watching box sets?
“I really, weirdly don’t miss that one bit,” she says.
“I’ve grown really fast over the last year and I really can’t complain about it. I think I’ve finally become an adult!"
Louise's F-Ab four
1. Side plank with crunch
3 sets of 10 on each side
Lie on your side and push into a plank from one elbow. Keeping you hips raised, bring your top elbow towards your knee.
2. Jab and cross sit-up
3 sets of 20
Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
Engaging the core, do a sit-up, jabbing each arm across the body before lying back.
3. Cross-body climbers
3 sets of 20
Start in a push-up position with your body straight. Move your right knee towards your left shoulder and then back again.
Repeat on the other side.
4. Leg raises
3 sets of 30
Lie on your back with your arms by your sides, palms down.
Raise your legs to a vertical position, taking your hips off the ground, then lower, keeping your feet off the floor.