Charlie’s shock weight gain: Up 7 dress sizes in 3 years
Gardening guru Charlie Dimmock seems to have piled on even more pounds...
Green-fingered goddess Charlie Dimmock, who fronted Ground
Force alongside Alan Titchmarsh in the late 90s, was as famous for her slim, womanly figure and skimpy tops – worn without a bra – as she was for her gardening knowledge and cheeky sense of humour. Once called ‘horticultural Viagra’, she had an army of devoted male fans.
But in recent years, the 5ft 6in TV presenter has been keeping a much lower profile. However, at a garden centre opening in Woking last week (right), she raised eyebrows with a much-altered appearance.
Although her trademark flame-haired locks are the same, Charlie, 51, had a noticeably fuller figure – something that was also remarked upon when she made a return last year on TV show Garden Rescue.
While some praised the horticultural queen’s knowledge, taking to Twitter to say Charlie ‘makes gardening fun’ and is ‘so knowledgeable and funny’, others confessed they hadn’t realised it was the same woman, tweeting, ‘Took me ages to realise it was her,’ and ‘I wouldn’t have recognised her unless she spoke.’
Dietitian Helen Bond says that when Charlie found fame, she was an estimated size 10, adding, ‘She looked very fit and muscular in those days.’
She was well established as a TV favourite when her life was touched by tragedy in 2004, when her mother, Sue, and stepdad, Rob, were killed in the Boxing Day tsunami while in Phuket, Thailand, and for a while she turned down offers of work.
By 2014, she already looked noticeably different. Helen says of her at the time, ‘ You could see the weight starting to creep on slowly. I’d say, at that point, she was about 12 ½ st (dress size 12-14).’
Now, Charlie appears to have put on even more weight. Helen says, ‘I would imagine Charlie is less physically active these days than she was in her braless heyday in the 90s. I’d say she weighs around 19-20st (dress size 26-28).’
She adds, ‘Hormonal changes as we age (the menopause usually hits at around 51 years) mean we become more likely to lay fat around the middle. It’s easy for it to creep up gradually without noticing.’
Weight gain or not, it’s great to see that Charlie has retained not only her magic power over plants, but the million-dollar smile that made her a TV star.
‘Hormonal changes mean we become more likely to lay fat around the middle’