Kimberley Walsh reveals X Factor’s Louis told Girls Aloud ‘it’s great none of you are fat anymore’ as she opens up on pressures of being in a girlband
BEING in one of Britain’s biggest girlbands, Kimberley Walsh was used to skimpy stage outfits and her sex symbol status being part of their success.
But she has now revealed just how much pressure she and her Girls Aloud bandmates came under from manager Louis Walsh to maintain their look — including being labelled fat.
Alongside Cheryl, Nicola Roberts, Sarah Harding and Nadine Coyle, her size 8 figure became an object of desire for the band’s male fans, while attracting envy from women.
But despite being a regular on various magazines’ world’s sexiest lists, Kimberley, 35, recalled: “We were doing our video for Love Machine in 2004 and Louis Walsh waltzed in and said to us, ‘Oh, none of you are fat any more! Brilliant, that’s great’.
“I was like, ‘OK! There it is . . .’ ”
While the cruel slur came two years after the girls were thrust together on Popstars: The Rivals, it evoked memories of the first series of the ITV talent show, when Hear’Say’s Kym Marsh was told on national telly to lose weight by judge Nigel Lythgoe.
Kimberley added: “Obviously in Louis’ head he did have an issue with some of our sizes but I think he learnt from Nigel and thought best not to comment in public — but he did in private.
“That was the first time I thought, ‘OK maybe my weight is an issue’.”
Louis’ attack confirmed the fears Kimberley secretly harboured before auditioning for him and fellow judges Pete Waterman and former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell.
She said: “Before I got into Girls Aloud I thought we would have a lot of pressure to lose weight, probably because I had seen things like that with Popstars and Kym Marsh.
“I thought particularly me — being a little more curvy — would be put under that pressure.
“Actually, we never did have any direct pressure from the record company, management or anything like that. Apart from Louis.”
Millions of viewers saw Girls Aloud trounce boyband One True Voice in the final, with debut single Sound Of The Underground holding off the lads’ double A-side Sacred Trust/After You’re Gone to score the Christmas No1.
And as record sales continued to grow after that success, their outfits got smaller. As a result, Kimberley lost weight.
She said: “You are under that pressure and you make those decisions yourself.
“I naturally did lose some weight when I got in the band but it was more for my own personal choice than someone telling me I had to be a certain size.
“It was just to feel more confident in the clothes I had to wear.”
The initial loss of Kimberley’s trademark curves was not just a side-effect of finding herself catapulted into the spotlight.
In 2003 she split from her first boyfriend, lower league footballer Martin Pemberton, after four years together.
A painful heartbreak diet followed and Bradford-born Kimberley admits now that dropping dress sizes did not equal happiness. She said: “The only time that I’ve ever been what I considered probably too thin was when I was really, really unhappy from a terrible break-up.
“Now I’m like, ‘Actually, maybe it’s not so great to be back there’ and I’m happy how I am.”
Kimberley later began dating former Triple 8 singer-turned-property developer Justin Scott.
In September 2014 they welcomed their first son, Bobby, before marrying in Barbados in February last year. Kimberley’s best friends Cheryl and Nicola were bridesmaids.
Kimberley gave birth to their second child, Cole, last December.
She put on 3st during her first pregnancy and took nearly a year to get back down to her pre-baby figure, through a combination of breastfeeding and healthy eating.
I spent so much time on stupid fad diets
Kimberley Walsh
She is equally relaxed seven months on from her second pregnancy — which saw her put on around 2st — and refuses to conform to outside pressures to quickly snap back into shape.
Instead, becoming a mum has taught her to love her body and she is now seen as a poster girl for her relaxed approach to her post-pregnancy body.
Above all, the singer is adamant she will not diet again, after her teenage years were blighted by her quest for the perfect body.
She said: “My mum was always on a diet so I think I was always on a diet at that age too, and that’s quite sad.
“As I got older I became more and more happy with myself.
“You obviously do get happier when you get into your thirties. You’re sort of more comfortable with who you are and I stopped dieting.
“But in those early teen years I spent so much time on these stupid fad diets. The cabbage soup diet, the Atkins . . . I have done them all.
“They work for a week then you miss everything you can’t eat. It was a massive waste of time. I wouldn’t do that again. Just live.”
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Kimberley is doing exactly that. She will not allow herself to be body-shamed again and hit out at Twitter trolls who torment female celebrities over their weight.
She said: “Why would you want to? Where would you be in that mental space to feel it necessary to comment on people’s appearance to that extent?
“I hate it when people comment on my body image full stop — nice or not so nice. I just feel, ‘Don’t look at me and judge me on my size immediately’.
“When people say, ‘Oh, you look good. You look like you’ve lost weight’, I’d prefer they just didn’t judge me on that.”
A year after being named the UK’s biggest-selling girl group of this century in 2012 — shifting more than 4.3million singles, including four No1s, and four million albums — Girls Aloud split.
Kimberley launched a career in musical theatre and landed starring roles in London’s West End, including as Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical and shop worker Jovie in Elf The Musical. She also strutted her stuff on the tenth series of BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2012, alongside pro dancer Pasha Kovalev.
The pair finished joint runners-up with Denise Van Outen and James Jordan, with gymnast Louis Smith and partner Flavia Cacace lifting the Glitterball trophy.
Her move into TV has inspired Kimberley to call for more diversity in body shapes on television.
Speaking at AOL’s Build session in London, she added: “It would be great if we had a much wider spread of women on TV but inevitably the women we do see tend to fit a certain stereotype.”