Ashley saved my life twice in weight battles
Diversity’s Jordan Banjo’s tribute to bro
DIVERSITY star Jordan Banjo has revealed his brother Ashley saved his life – not once, but twice.
The father of two has spoken of his weight battle after ballooning to more than 20st and only shedding pounds after his Dancing on Ice judge sibling stepped in.
But now he reveals Ashley also intervened again to save him after his slimming regime went out of control.
When Jordan, 28, who is fronting Channel 4’s new show Lose Weight Like Me, was 13, a doctor declared him “morbidly obese” and urged him to rethink his lifestyle.
He didn’t and angrily hit out at anyone who mentioned his weight.
Just before his 18th birthday, and having ballooned to more than 22st, Jordan finally reached out for help.
Jordan said: “I turned to Ash as I knew I was either going to have to do something about my weight or things were going to get way, way worse. “He was brilliant. He helped me rethink my diet and put together a workout routine. The weight came off pretty quickly. “Everyone kept telling me I looked so good but I always thought I could lose more weight.” Jordan admits he starved himself and could hardly string a sentence together during rehearsals for Diversity’s Christmas tour. He said: “We’d done a Diversity tour at the start of the year and I’d been at my heaviest. But by the time we came back to do a
Christmas series of shows the same year, I’d lost it all. “My name was announced and I walked on stage past an old picture, where I was more than 20st. I was 12st at this point and no one cheered, not a single person. They looked confused. Ash got on the microphone and made a joke about how I looked different from my picture on screen. It was only then that people realised it was me.
“Ash had set me on a good path but he’s super-busy so had left me to get on with it. But all I could think about was losing more weight. It got out of control.”
He added: “That’s when Ashley intervened, again. It took a lot for me to ask for help the first time, but he had my back and had it again. Ash saved my life at both ends of the scales, literally.”
Jordan, who is 6ft 5ins, is now 17st and knows what he needs to do to stay healthy.
Lose Weight Like Me airs on Channel 4 next Tuesday at 8pm.