Coronation Street’s bubbly barmaid Glenda Shuttleworth has had a life filled with many twists and turns on the road to Weatherfield.
And it’s fair to say fans have fallen in love with the feisty character ever since actress Jodie Prenger joined the beloved ITV soap back in August last year.
But this isn’t the 43-year-old beauty’s first brush with fame, after she was catapulted to fame in 2006 when she appeared on a hit weight loss programme.
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Since then, the actress has made quite an impact as a leading lady for stage and screen over the past 16 years.
(Image: ITV)
Glenda is no stranger to putting her name to a big production, boasting theatre credits including Shirley Valentine, Fat Friends: The Musical, Annie and One Man, Two Guvnors.
But arguably one of the biggest struggles she has faced throughout her life has been managing her health.
As the feisty barmaid puts her entrepreneurial skills to the test on the Cobbles, Daily Star has taken a deep dive inside her life-long weight loss battle.
The Biggest Loser
(Image: LIVINGTV PRESS OFFICE)
The brunette beauty first rose to fame when she won the second series of the hit Sky Living weight loss show The Biggest Loser, where she bagged herself a £25,000 cash prize.
Over the course of six months, the star dropped nine stone – going from 18st 2lb to 9st 9lbs and dropping from a size 26 to a size 12.
Jodie even went on to release a weight loss DVD following her impressive win where she lost half her body weight on the programme.
(Image: Getty)
The star admitted before she went on the show that she was eating too much of the wrong things at the wrong times.
Speaking to Daily Star, she said: “Because I worked at night, I’d sit around in the day and make a sandwich for something to do.
“I couldn’t cook, so I’d eat in restaurants all the time and then after gigs I’d have a KFC or a cheese sandwich. I knew it was wrong, but it fed my hunger.”
Return to reality
(Image: msjodieprenger/Instagram)
After she finished the show, the 5ft 3in star would regularly work out for three hours a day to maintain her trim figure.
Speaking to The Sun, she explained: “What that show did was teach me a lot about exercise and I enjoyed the process because we did it as a group.
“But it wasn’t realistic because they put you in a house and you did nothing else but that, so when real life comes in again, it’s not sustainable.”
(Image: LightRocket via Getty Images)
As the years passed, the actress struggled as she adjusted to life outside of the controlled mansion.
She told Daily Star: “I found it hard to keep the weight off, and it’s never helped that I am partial to a cheeseboard and a bottle of Prosecco. The main thing now is that I do enjoy myself and refuse to beat myself up about my weight.
“Size 10-12 just wasn’t sustainable. Besides, I’d gotten too skinny, I was happy to regain a couple of stone and get some curves back.”
Yo-yo diets
(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
In 2012, following an explosive split from boxing legend Chris Eubank, the star fell madly in love with company director Simon Booth.
Unfortunately, her 6ft 4in tall partner had quite the appetite which lead to Jodie eating more.
Two years later she faced several life changes, after she landed a part in the West End show One Man Two Guvnors, Simon popped the question, and her dad Marty was diagnosed with kidney cancer which he died of months later.
(Image: Talkback Thames)
During that difficult time in her life, the star confessed that her health and diet was the last thing on her mind.
Jodie explained: “It was the best of times and the worst of times rolled into one and my natural reaction was to keep busy and go out every night, so there was never time to confront my emotional turmoil.
“I was drinking too much and eating whatever rubbish we could find at daft o’clock in the morning whether it was steak and chips in a posh café or a burger from a takeaway.”
(Image: PA)
It wasn’t until she started the new show and spotted billboards of herself that she realised she needed to lose the weight again after she put on around four stone.
The actress confessed: “I was wearing a corset over a pair of Spanx over another corset, and even with all that the fat still managed to escape.
“I didn’t see it in the mirror, but blown up on a billboard, I looked larger than life.”
Finally moving on
(Image: Getty Images for The National Lottery)
As she prepared to take on the role of Glenda on the Cobbles, the soap star finally put an end to her yo-yo diets after years of battling with her weight.
Speaking to The Sun, Jodie explained how her life has changed since took a break from the West End for the ITV soap.
She told the publication: “My weight has been up and down like a bride’s nightie. Sometimes I’m alright with it and other times I’m not.
(Image: ITV)
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“But I always think, ‘God, I wish I was as big as I was the first time I thought I was big, you know?’
“And that just goes to show that you’ve got to enjoy life while you can and for what it is. So, I enjoy exercising but I also enjoy going out and having fun with my friends.
“I bought a Peloton bike a while back but it’s actually hanging up my dressing gown as we speak. Life’s too short, isn’t it?”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
