FLATTERING LIGHTING . . . . . . AND THE REALITY
know how we are friends actually! She slipped through the net,’ quips Nadia.
‘But I told her recently that I was mortified to let her see my legs, because I thought she’d be judging me. Isn’t that sad?’
Yes you could argue that there is quite a dollop of self-promotion in Nadia’s platforming of her cellulite. But our interview, over Zoom, is also heartbreaking.
‘I do just want to cry when I look back at my life,’ she says. ‘I always thought I was the fat one — even when I wasn’t remotely fat.
‘Being in the entertainment industry was a huge part of it, although it pre-dated that.’
SHE WAS born to be on the stage. Nadia’s Jordanian-born father Nadim was an actor, and two of his three daughters — Nadia, and Julia (most famous for her role as Saffy in Absolutely Fabulous) — followed him into the industry.
A rumbustious family, they were big on food and laughter. But Nadia grew up pretty much waiting to develop a double chin.
‘I had a very loving family [she still lives next door to her parents], but from the aunties the message was: “Be careful. Most of the family goes to fat.”
‘Those are dangerous things to say to a child but, in the Seventies, no one knew.’
Then she was plunged into the acting industry, where, in those days, being thin was expected.
‘At drama school we were weighed. The rule was that actresses had to be skinny. No debate.
‘I remember getting a part and going shopping with a stylist. I weighed 9st, 3lb. I am 5ft 6in tall, so I could not have been huge. My measurements were 36-24-36 — that’s Miss World, for God’s sake! I was a goddess — but still I was told it would be hard to dress me.
‘I turned down auditions because I thought I was too fat.
‘On my first film, I went to the catering van and asked for egg, bacon and toast, and the guy said: “This van is only for actors, not extras.” He thought I must be an extra, because it’s rare for actresses to eat so much.’
Photos of her from that time do, indeed, suggest a young woman with a slim-yet-shapely form. Early in her career, when she seemed to be on an A-list trajectory, she was in a Hollywood film.
‘I had a very small part. We were filming in Morocco. One of the actresses would go to the gym every day, while I hated the gym.
‘One day I was sitting by the pool, probably with my pina colada, and she walked by and said: “Hi Nadia,” then paused. She said — and she meant this nicely; it wasn’t bitchy — “It kind of breaks my heart you don’t go to the gym. You could have a really great body.”
‘Movie stars are athletes, and they are where they are because nothing takes them away from their goal.
‘I never had that kind of focus. Other people wanted my career to go in that direction, but . . . I didn’t want to go to the gym!’
We spend an hour talking about Nadia’s attitude to food, eating, and her own body, and, yep, it’s a minefield.
She has written five cookery books, but has also spent a sizeable chunk of her life trying to disentangle herself from dysfunctional eating habits that made her miserable. For years she went to Overeaters Anonymous, learning how not to bury her emotions in food.
‘I’m much better now, but so much of my life has been wasted getting to this point,’ says Nadia, who is mum to Maddie, 17, and Kiki, 12. ‘I don’t want my daughters to go through this.’
For the past 20 years, she has been part of the Loose Women brigade, and body image is a regular topic on the show. Hardly surprising given its predominantly female audience.
Three years ago, the presenters all agreed to pose in swimwear and have their images posed on billboards as part of the body-positive Body Stories campaign. Bryan Adams the singer-turned-photographer took the pictures.
‘It was a big deal for ITV. Expensive. I found it very nerve-wracking. I didn’t enjoy it,’ she says.
‘I walked into the room in a Marks & Spencer bra and my Primark knickers and stood there in front of Bryan Adams; in front of this ROCK GOD!
‘At that point, I wouldn’t even stand in front of my husband in my bra and pants. I would practically drag the curtain off the wall trying to cover myself and get across the room without him seeing my wobbly bits.
‘It was my worst nightmare but, ultimately, I ended up being glad I’d done it.
‘The pictures weren’t bad. They went up on billboards. Nobody died. The world didn’t collapse because I’d got my thighs out. And the reaction from other women was extraordinary.’
By this point, Nadia was making a living by being Nadia, rather than by being an actress. Loose Women requires its panellists to be pretty open about their lives, and she has chatted freely about her daughters and her home life (even her miscarriages).
She married TV executive Mark Adderley in 2002. They homeschool the girls, broadcast their experiences, and are sometimes eye-poppingly honest about the trials of family life.
WHAT’S interesting is that Nadia’s journey to tackle her body and food issues has been played out as her daughters have grown. ‘I have apologised to my eldest about that,’ she says. ‘When she was little, I was doing what I’d done my whole life. I’d say, in her presence: “Oh, my God, I’m so fat. Why did I eat those biscuits? I hate myself.”
‘By the time my younger daughter was that age, I’d changed how I was living.
‘It was like an experiment I didn’t know I was doing — and I can see the difference in them now. My eldest daughter worries about how she looks; the younger one doesn’t.’
That her daughters are growing up in a world of filters and selfies utterly terrifies her.
‘Our daughters’ generation has TikTok, which is just one endless perfect body after another, sometimes with vile comments from young men. It’s horrifying.
‘Then you get all the filters. There are friends of my daughters who are embarrassed to leave the house because the real them doesn’t look as good as the filtered version.’
And what about life in her house? How did her husband react to seeing those wobbly bits she has kept under wraps for so long?
She laughs. ‘Well the world didn’t fall down. He didn’t run out the door and have an affair.
‘He said he loves all of me, and can’t separate the legs and the arms from the rest of me. He said: “I fancy you like mad. I couldn’t fancy you any more.” ’
She shrugs, and sums up this situation: ‘Men don’t waste their time on cellulite, do they? It’s a woman thing.’
O HONEY, I Home-Schooled The Kids, by Nadia Sawalha and Mark Adderley, is available to pre-order on Amazon.