The blonde Olympic champ who’s got Sheridan smiling again
12 months ago Sheridan Smith was at her lowest ebb. Now all’s changed thanks to . . .
DEEP down, every woman has a friend they dream of looking like. Who hasn’t been tempted to imitate a glamorous girlfriend’s dress sense, or up their exercise regimen in the hope of attaining a figure like their trimmer pal?
It seems this is the case with Sheridan Smith. For as these striking pictures show, the hugely talented actress has undergone a dramatic physical transformation in a few short weeks — and it’s all down to her personal trainer, former Olympian Sarah Lindsay. You can’t fail to notice the similarities between the two, from their fashionably large dark glasses to their identical bouncy blonde hairdos.
Most startling of all is how Sheridan, 35, has started to replicate Sarah’s honed and toned figure — and has rapidly dropped the pounds which have been plaguing her. Her cheekbones are sharpened, her jawline taut and her tummy trim.
The actress’s transformation since her appearance in a Twenties-style flapper dress just six weeks ago at the Olivier Awards is staggering. As well as helping to alter her appearance, her trainer has been credited with helping her leave the demons of the past behind.
So who is Sarah Lindsay and how did former Gavin & Stacey star Sheridan, lauded for her versatility in playing roles from Cilla Black to Mrs Ronnie Biggs, end up becoming so reliant on her?
A three-time Olympian speed skater with a fabulous figure, Sarah trains many female celebrities with enviable bodies. TV presenters Melanie Sykes and Caroline Flack and singer Pixie Lott are among them. Sarah swears by an intense weightlifting regime to shift the pounds. Supportive of her clients, she uses social media to motivate her ‘roar girls’, as she calls them — so dubbed because of her company’s name, Roar Fitness.
She and Sheridan have posted appreciative pictures of each other on Instagram. ‘Love this firecracker!’, the trainer says, calling her ‘gorgeous’.
And, what began as a session over dumbbells has progressed into a deep friendship. A recent outing to the polo with Sarah clearly had an effect on Sheridan — who posted a picture of the pair with their arms round each other, with the caption: ‘Had the best day with this one.’
It seems Sheridan is, like so many women, finding contentment in the company of a good female friend, after being failed by a succession of men. And for her legions of fans — the funny, gifted and down-to-earth actress has attained something of a national treasure status — that’s to be welcomed.
LAST year Sheridan suffered an ‘annus
horribilis’ — losing her beloved father to cancer, falling in and out of rocky of romances and suffering a very public meltdown while performing in the West End musical Funny Girl.
But, thankfully, it seems things are improving. ‘The changes for Sheridan are mental as much as physical, the two go hand in hand,’ a good friend of the actress said this week.
‘It’s no secret that she struggled last year. Nothing Sheridan does will ever be secret as she wears her heart on her sleeve.
‘But it’ll soon be crystal clear to everyone that she’s back with a vengeance. She’s totally committed to changing her life, eating right, exercising right and keeping a clear head.
‘Even now, when she’s only been on the new regime for a few weeks, you can see the difference. She’s on cracking form and loving life again.’
Boozy nights out have been swapped for rigorous weighttraining and bespoke meals from specialist health food firm Protein Haus. ‘It’s early days, but the signs are hugely promising,’ added the friend. ‘Sarah has quickly become more than a trainer. They are great friends and socialise together a lot.
‘The only thing standing in Sheridan’s way now is work. She’s touring with Funny Girl and she’s been in Newcastle this week, so it’s hard to stick to the programme 100 per cent.
‘But she’s on her way. This is going to be the summer everything changes. I’ve never seen her so determined to put problems of the past behind her.’
Part of Sheridan’s weight gain was undoubtedly for professional reasons — she was forced to bulk up for her critically acclaimed role in gritty drama The Moorside, based on the kidnap of Shannon Matthews.
At the Olivier Awards last month, she was frank about her struggles to get back into shape. ‘I put on weight for The Moorside. I’ve still got a load, but I’m trying to lose it,’ she said.
This, however, only scratches the surface of the turmoil she has been through. Only those closest to Sheridan know just how deeply she was wounded by the loss of her beloved father, Colin, in December 2016. His cancer battle took such a toll that she had to take a break from Funny Girl last summer.
Widely mocked for being seen in public apparently worse for wear, then having performances cancelled due to ‘technical difficulties’, she took to lashing out on Twitter at disgruntled fans who criticised her.
All the while, her love life was imploding. After two very public break-ups, she embarked on a catastrophic dalliance in 2015 with Greg Wood, an actor from the soap opera Hollyoaks, who she first chatted up on Twitter.
The warning signs were there from the start, as Wood was in the process of divorcing his wife of ten years, Catherine Milburn, after being caught having an affair with his on-screen girlfriend Tamara Wall.
However, eternal romantic Sheridan proceeded headlong with the relationship. She and Wood got matching tattoos of playing cards, with Sheridan’s reading ‘Gregory’s Girl’ and his ‘My Sheri Amour’.
But it wasn’t to last. After repeated splits and reunions, the pair broke up for good at the beginning of 2016, after Sheridan suspected Wood, a father of three, of again cheating with his co-star. She had previously tweeted that her heart had been broken by an ‘idiot boy’.
One can’t help but wonder why Sheridan seems to fall for such rotters. The answer, it seems, lies in her deep insecurities. In interviews she’s spoken of feeling like a ‘fraud’ who hasn’t been found out yet.
It’s a fragility which stems from her humble upbringing in Epworth, a town between Doncaster and Scunthorpe. Her parents, Colin and Marilyn, worked for decades in a country and western band, The Daltons. From the age of six Sheridan would join them on stage.
UNLIKE most actors, she did not go to drama school, but instead joined the National Youth Music Theatre and then moved to London aged 16 looking for stage roles.
Success soon followed, with roles in TV comedies such as The Royle Family and her leading part in Funny Girl (£5 million worth of tickets were sold after she signed up as the star turn).
But through it all there was trauma, indelibly marked on her body in her many tattoos. It began with the loss of her older brother Julian, who died of cancer in 1990 aged 18, commemorated in a tiny wrist tattoo of angel wings and a halo.
In memory of her father, she recently had the words ‘Daddy’s
girl’ tattooed on her right forearm. Four days ago she showed off a new tattoo on her back, a quote from Hamlet: ‘This above all: to thine own self be true.’
And it is her own self, and female gang (a recent Instagram quote she posted reads: ‘Maybe our girlfriends are our soulmates, and guys are just people to have fun with’), that Sheridan now focuses on. Ever sociable, she still treats herself to the odd night out and earlier this week had a few drinks with the Funny Girl cast in Newcastle. But such occasions are the exception rather than the rule.
She’s also been helped by moving to the countryside, away from the capital’s temptations. While she still has a London base, home is a four-bedroom cottage in rural Buckinghamshire, which she shares with a growing menagerie of dogs (she recently adopted a pair of hairless Chihuahuas, named Phil and Grant after the Mitchell brothers in East Enders).
Regularly spotted in the local Sainsbury’s, she has become a familiar sight to locals who say she looks ‘domesticated and happy’. She has not been seen out with a man since her split from Wood.
According to a source who has known her for over a decade, she is on a self-proclaimed ‘man detox’ and determined to make sure she’s happy alone before jumping into another intense relationship. ‘The one who got away was James Corden [her Gavin & Stacey costar, whom she dated in 2007] and Sheridan has been trying to find the same happiness ever since,’ says the friend.
‘I sat with him at an event towards the end of their relationship and he said, “I love the girl, but things are just too crazy when we’re together. I’m exhausted.”
That her ex is now a happily married family man, and a star in his own right, with a hit U.S. talk show, no doubt stings.
The only significant man in her life these days is her best male friend, comedian David Walliams. The pair recently filmed an adaptation of his book Ratburger. However, there is scant chance of romance blossoming there.
And so, with no Romeo on the scene, Sheridan has taken to posting pictures of beautiful women online, declaring undying love and even a desire to propose to them.
FORMER Hollyoaks actress, Wendy Glenn, appears to be Sheridan’s main Instagram flirtation — they have exchanged many mischievous, teasing messages online, complimenting each other.
Wendy calls Sheridan ‘baby’ and jokes about their forthcoming ‘wedding’. Sheridan calls her ‘my bird’ and ‘wife-to-be’. Tongue in cheek or not, one can sense the delight in Sheridan’s messages — a sign she’s in a good place again.
With her emotional respite comes success in her career, too.
After being dropped by her PR agency, Public Eye, in 2015 allegedly for being ‘high maintenance’, and parting company with her agent, Sarah Camlett, she is knuckling down to the graft of showbusiness again.
Sources on the Funny Girl tour say she has been the epitome of professionalism, turning in outstanding performances and looking after her voice on days off.
It seems her female ‘soulmates’ bring Sheridan a happiness — personal and professional — no man ever has. Her fans will be relieved to see the smile firmly back on the face of our beloved Funny Girl.