‘I was disgusted by the old me – now I love my sexy body’ Before her transformation in 2012

Fresh from going under the knife to remove excess skin following her dramatic weight-loss, Lisa Riley opens up about her incredible makeover journey

er confidence has soared since H shedding a staggering 12st by overhauling her diet and fitness regime and dropping from a size 28 to a 12. And now Lisa Riley has an even bigger reason to smile, as she’s completed the final stage in her radical makeover by removing over a stone of saggy skin after surgery.

The star – who found fame as Mandy Dingle in Emmerdale – has had two operations in the space of four months to remove skin from her groin, legs, stomach and back, and she’s delighted with the results.

Lisa, 41, tells Closer: “I’m truly elated with my body. I can’t believe the transformation – I’m constantly stroking myself. Now the saggy skin has gone, I’m completely flat on my stomach and I’ve got a really small waist. I asked the surgeon to give me a cello shape, and that’s exactly what he’s done. I definitely feel sexier, I’m always naked – sometimes I forget to close the curtains!”

THE DREAM FIGURE

Despite her drastic transformation, Lisa – who’s set to appear in upcoming TV documentary Baggy Body Club about her surgery journey – bravely opens up about the torment she faced over her excess skin. “I couldn’t go on as I was,” she admits. “After I lost the weight, I’d look in the mirror and feel devastated when I saw my saggy skin, it was verging on disgust.”

While she was praised for her newly slim figure after shedding the weight, the Loose Women panellist was forced to put on a brave face knowing she still hadn’t achieved the dream body she craved. She explains: “The hardest part was going to work with people telling me how great I looked. In the back of my mind I thought, ‘You have no idea how I look underneath.’”

CRITICISM

Lisa admits it affected her mental health too. She explains: “I learned to disguise it, and I did it well. My skin was like Playdoh, I’d have certain stockings where I could layer it and tuck it in, so it was well hidden. It affected me psychologically every day. I’d wake up and feel low. The skin was so horrendous that I started to wish I could be the ‘old me’ when I was bigger, because at least the skin was padded out. That’s when I knew there was no other choice but to have surgery.”

As part of her second procedure, Lisa had a breast uplift to correct her 36D chest. She says: “When I show people a picture of my old boobs, they gasp because they’re just dangling like a dragon’s tongue. Now they’re so much fuller, they sit upright and they’re perfect. My other half loves my new boobies!”

But she is quick to point out this isn’t the start of a long list of procedures. “I’m not addicted to surgery and the procedures I had were corrective, not for vanity,” she insists. “People suspect I’ve had Botox, but I’ve never had one single syringe of Botox or filler in my face!”

Since halving her weight, Lisa has also been plagued by rumours that she “cheated” by having gastric band surgery, but while she’s strenuously denied these claims – and even took a lie detector test live on Loose Women to prove it – she’s learned to laugh off the rumours. She jokes: “I flew back from Mykonos the other week and in the airport a lady whispered to me: ‘Come on Lisa, it’s just me and you, you’ve had a band haven’t you?’ I laughed, and explained I’ve changed my whole lifestyle on my own and become extremely disciplined. If someone brings a Krispy Kreme to work, I know I can’t have one. In my documentary they cut me open so people can see there’s no band!”